While school consolidation may help, insurance and energy costs will still run wild

As legislators, our goal is to build lasting prosperity for Maine and Maine’s children. To judge the emerging schools package well, we must look not at the next election, but fifty years forward and fifty back. We must also be ready to tackle what matters most, and to deal with problems at their source.

Fifty years ago, Maine’s Legislature enacted a sweeping and largely successful law to promote and reward regional school consolidation. By enacting the 1957 Sinclair Act, Maine cut the number of school districts roughly in half over the next two decades – and raised its share of school spending.

Sound familiar? Perhaps. But to misquote the great Yogi Berra, 2007 isn’t “déj vu all over again.” While 1957’s leaders invited consolidation by offering schools more money, and as much time as they wanted, 2007’s leaders will likely force consolidation by offering less money, and mandating school district sizes of 2,500 students within a year.

Will kids and taxpayers both benefit? Let’s hope so. But if we want sweeping savings, let’s also deal with the elephants in the room: rising health insurance and energy costs. More than most states, we’ve worked hard on getting the elephants to leave – but haven’t yet succeeded. And while we’re scrubbing the school consolidation data, questioning its origins and assumptions, the elephants are breaking the dishes and soiling the rugs.

Consider these related facts:

• Over the last ten years, the portion of the state’s budget for K-12 education has not increased. In other words, K-12 funding has grown at the same rate as other expenditures.

• The biggest costs in school budgets are paying those who work directly with kids, and building schools. Next come the elephants: health insurance premiums, and energy (heat, electricity and busing).

• Since 2000, nationwide health insurance premiums have risen by 87 percent (and wages by only 20 percent).

• Over the last five years alone, nationwide energy costs have more than doubled.

Health insurance and energy costs are national issues; even global ones. Yet even as the Legislature sweeps out the inefficiencies from our school systems, we must be equally, if not more vigorous, in driving out the elephants from our entire state.

We must move quickly to broaden health care coverage, bringing the greatest possible buying power to the table when negotiating with mammoths like Anthem. And we must move just as aggressively to increase energy conservation, driving down regional energy demand and prices.

If we do those things, just think who will thank us: name one business, or tax dollar, unsoiled by rising health insurance or energy costs, and I’ll give you the flag flown over the State House. Name one child whose educational opportunities aren’t soiled by the same elephants; one senior citizen unaffected; one voter not disaffected.

The thanks will come from every Mainer.

At this point, it’s too early to tell whether the Legislature’s new schools package will effectively tidy the kitchen table. But while one group works on schools, others are working on the rest of the house – starting with those health insurance and energy elephants.

Let’s hope that by June, we’ve made progress in all three areas – moving toward lasting prosperity, rather than away from it.

Rep. Seth Berry (D-Bowdoinham) has studied school reform and taught in public school settings for 20 years.