School administrators and school board members have blasted the governor’s proposal to reduce school districts by 80 percent. But what do others think of the plan? We asked a few taxpayers and former Gov. Angus King for their thoughts. Former Gov. John McKernan, an education consultant, declined to comment. Through a spokeswoman, McKernan said he didn’t know enough about Gov. John Baldacci’s plan.

Angus King: ‘He’s right’

Former independent Gov. Angus King tries not to say much about what’s going on in Augusta, but he felt he had to speak up about Gov. John Baldacci’s plan to vastly reduce Maine school districts.

“He’s right,” King said. “I hate to see the governor get an unfair beating for a good idea.”

King takes issues with those complaining that it would mean a loss of local control. Local control of what, he asks. Bus driver contracts? Contracting snow plowing? Negotiating teacher contracts? Purchasing pencils? Vacation policies?

The local control people need and want is of their schools and the governor’s proposal recommends local councils to work with schools, King said.

He has no beef with individual school board members or superintendents. He knows many and says they’re capable. “The problem is, we have too many good people doing the same thing.”

No one is proposing that the state “take over the schools and run them from Augusta,” King said. Baldacci’s plan to reduce districts from 152 to 26 includes more than 300 school board members statewide. “That’s twice the size of the Legislature,” King said. “We entrust 186 people to make our laws. We can’t we trust 300 to (oversee) education?”

If the plan doesn’t pass, people should stop complaining about high taxes, King said. Baldacci deserves credit for taking “a courageous stand to do exactly what the people keep saying they want him to do: Cut property taxes.”

Mary Adams: ‘Not the answer’

Mary Adams, 68, of Garland, is a taxpayer activist who worked for the recent TABOR referendum, and in the 1970s was largely responsible for Maine ditching the state property tax.

Adams says she doesn’t like Baldacci’s plan because it would destroy local control.

“I disagree with him in the way he wants to do it. It would be giving the state total control over education. This is the Sinclair Act on steroids.” The Sinclair Act created school administrative districts.

The SADs are driving higher costs in education, Adams says, and she believes Baldacci’s plan would make that worse. She says the solution is in the recommendations by the Maine Heritage Policy Center which would encourage consolidation of services but leave control with local school boards.

Adams praised Baldacci for having the courage to tell “the facts of life” to the people who need to hear it: educators. But she believes his plan is heading toward one statewide teachers’ contract that would raise teacher pay and taxpayers’ costs. That, she warned, could bring back a state property tax.

“He put his finger on the problem, but his solution was way off.”

Lewiston woman likes ‘great plan’

Catherine Sabine, 69, is a Lewiston homeowner, a retired licensed clinical therapist with a master’s degree in education administration. She defines herself as a senior taxpayer who likes Baldacci’s plan.

“Hooray for him. I think it’s bold. It took a lot of courage, but it’s a long time needed.”

People her age feel like they don’t have a voice, she said. “We feel like for the first time a politician has heard the taxpayers say: ‘We want taxes cut.’ It’s about time we have somebody who stops and looks at the taxpayer. We’re saying we’ve had enough. We want the children to be educated, but we don’t need to do it the old way. The old way’s not working.”

Auburn man: ‘It’s about time’

Ron Potvin, 43, is a corrections officer for Androscoggin County and heads the Auburn Small Property Owners Association.

The association’s board of directors is in complete agreement with Baldacci’s plan, Potvin said. “We feel it’s about time. The governor received the message taxpayers sent last November with a very large pro-TABOR vote.” Question 1 to limit local and state spending was defeated 288,971 to 247,172.

The Auburn Small Property Owners Association did a survey of municipal spending last year and found that spending on administration in Maine school districts was out of control, Potvin said.

“Why can other states do things more effectively with better results?”

Some states run much larger county education systems than what Baldacci is proposing, Potvin said. “Why would it be so difficult to have one larger body doing it for 10 or 12 districts?”

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