School choice saved in Raymond and Orland, lost elsewhere...

[Stephen Bowen]

Voters in Raymond and Orland both voted to preserve school choice.

The vote in Orland was very close, 671 to 644. That means Orland will continue to have at least some school choice after merging with Bucksport, assuming the merger plan passes when the time comes. That plan would limit high school choice in Orland to only 35% of students. The other 65% will be required to attend Bucksport High School.

School choice in Raymond was upheld by a better than two-to-one margin, 1923 to 788. This means Raymond will keep choice after merging with Windham. This is a truly great win considering that much of the school board and the school administration were adamantly against choice.

The battle is not over yet. school choice was lost as a result of the Freeport-Durham-Pownal merger, and the school choice waiver program available to SAD 38 students will be lost as a result of the merger with SAD 48.

There are more reorganization plans to come, many involving choice communities - so stay tuned!

[Stephen Bowen]

Thanks again for the discussion. I'll try to answer all your points.

1. With regard to SAD 38, I guarantee that we'll see fewer out-of-district placements once the RSU is in place. SAD 38 had no vested interest in where the kids went to high school, but SAD 48 does. It will grow harder and harder for those kids to get waivers as the years go on. The "grandfather clause" is meaningless as it will apply to fewer and fewer kids as the years go by.

2. The USM study is worthy of review - I have not looked at any kind of economic/geographic connection.

3. With regard to a level playing field, I understand your position but I don't think the solution is all schools being the same- we need specialization, not standardization. In an ideal choice environment, we'd have schools that specialize in GT kids, LD kids, we'd have art schools, math/science schools, etc. Obviously we need a change to the tuitioning system so that it recognizes that different kids have different costs, but I don't want all schools the same, teaching the same thing. The Bangor area is a good example. If all kids in the area had choice, the various high schools could specialize. If the money that followed the LD kids, for example, realized their true costs, you'd have schools competing for them. It seems wasteful to me to have every school offering the exact same curriculum...

4. Regarding contracts, I don't know your situation, but do you have teachers who should find another line of work but can't be easily moved out because of the contract? I know I've taught with a few over the years. Do you have seniority rights that give the more senior teachers the plum assignments? When I first started teaching, I got all the toughest kids. The senior teachers got the AP and GT classes. Those are the kinds of contract provisions that prevent schools from managing their human resources (teachers) to maximize performance. Do you have a pay structure that pays teachers more for taking classes that have no bearing on improving their craft, or a pay system that does not recognize and reward achievement and excellence? This is what I mean by the contracts limiting the level of creativity and innovation. State and Federal mandates are far worse, generally, but contracts can be a big problem as well.

5. However you count it, we're not talking a lot of difference in money here. You are including IVF money in Bapst's amount, but that is there because, unlike the publics, it cannot access state aid for capital improvements. SAD 48 can, which lowers its per-pupil costs.

The tuitioning system needs work, without question. I'm guessing we end up moving to some kind of EPS tuition rate that more carefully reflects real costs, including real costs for special needs kids.

6. Seems to me Dover Foxcroft and East Machias are "economically depressed" areas, yet the private schools in both those communities are growing rapidly. Take a look at this paper I did, which talks about what happened to a Vermont school after it went private about a decade ago - it cut costs and dramatically improved student outcomes. Private schools have more freedom to innovate and I think that produces results. This is not a knock on public school teachers or administrators - they are trapped in the same overly-bureaucratic system the kids are. We need innovation and ingenuity and I've become convinced that privates and even semi-privates, like charter schools, are in the best position to be innovative and ingenious.

7. There are 8 communities in Maine that have lost school choice in the past year or so. The kids in those towns went to 22 different high schools, but now, other than those that get "grandfathered," the kids in those towns will all go to one of three schools. Maybe those three schools are all excellent, but when the kids had choice, many chose not to go to them, which tells me that the kids and their families decided that whatever other school they went to was a better fit. That ability to choose is being taken away, and kids are being forced, unless they can move or afford a private school, (or homeschool) to attend those schools. I don't see how the loss of choice that is going on can be interpreted any other way.

Thanks again for the great discussion!

[Glendon Rand]

1. I believe that your quote about SAD 38 students being forced to attend Nokomis is misleading in two ways. First, students who have siblings currently attending choice high schools will be able to attend that same school. Second, there is a provision where students can make a case for why they should be allowed to attend a school other than Nokomis, make that case before the Nokomis principal, and then the school board can allow it if the educational reasons are justified. I think we should allow that process to work it's way out before we dismiss it.

2. Thanks for the link to the USM study. I look forward to reading it to see what criteria are used to determine whether a school is low or high performing. Looking at the list of schools however it would seem that there is a very strong geographical/economic relationship.

3. I don't have a problem with choices as long as it is a level playing field for the schools involved. Allowing some schools to be selective in their admissions process and then giving them more money is not a level playing field.

4. As a high school teacher I agree that all of our schools need to continue to do a better job educating students. I think that choice, especially publicly funded charter schools, can play a role. As a member of my local association, I cannot think of a way that our union contract inhibits my ability to be an effective teacher or my school's ability to educate students. I'm curious what you are thinking there.

5. As far as what Nokomis receives in tuition compared to John Bapst. Isn't there a difference between operating expenses and what they receive from sending communities? I found on the DOE website the tuition amounts for the 2007-8 school year for Nokomis to be $7031.77 compared to John Bapst which was $8843.10 plus another roughly $1000 in mandatory fees charged directly to parents. The same document says that the per-pupil operating costs for Nokomis were $6690.56 for the 2006-7 school year. My point was this - how much do the choice communities send to Nokomis and John Bapst? I stand by my claim that John Bapst receives substantially more money.

6. With less than 20 private schools to use as a comparison to the many more public schools, especially considering that virtually none of the private schools are in economically depressed areas of the state, it seems reasonable that there would be more public schools where achievement is low. I don't see how you can draw a correlation between the fact that they are low performing BECAUSE they are public schools.

7. I don't think that I said anything in my earlier post about taking away choice and forcing students into underperforming schools.

[Stephen Bowen]

Thanks for your feedback. I don't believe either of the things you quote me as having said are inaccurate. SAD 38 students will be forced to attend Nokomis - they will have no other choice. Nokomis was found by USM to be one of the state's lower performing schools. (Incidentally, the same report identifies a number of public high schools that are high achieving, including Bangor, Hampden and Dexter.) Unquestionably, the folks working at the school are doing what they can to improve the school and I have no doubt that Nokomis has served many of its students very well, but we need to face the fact that our schools, despite the best efforts of the people in them, are not achieving to the level we need. To my way of thinking, we need a lot more choices out there, our teachers and administrators need a lot more freedom from the restraints of government bureaucracy and union contracts. The top-down model simply is not getting the job done, and I think the only way to get real reform is to "let a thousand flowers bloom" through school choice.

As for John Bapst, I don't agree with your figures. Yes, Bapst and the other private schools get a flat tuition amount, but it is far less than the state average of more than $10,000 per pupil. I don't know where your numbers come from, but the state's data tells me that for 2006-2007, SAD 48 spent $8400 per high schooler in operating costs, which does not include major capital outlay, debt service, transportation and federal expenditures. When those are added in, SAD 48 is not doubt spending more per pupil than Bapst is. Yes, Bapst does not have special ed programming, but many other privates do, and their achievement is generally better than the publics, something I would attribute to the relative freedom to innovate that the privates have as a consequence of being private.

If we are going to get more school choice in Maine, we are going to need to be honest about the extent to which the existing system is underperforming. For whatever reason, Nokomis is underperforming, even when compared to nearby public high schools. It is certainly not the only underperforming school, and it might have been prudent, in retrospect, to mention some others so as not to single it out, but we cannot keep excusing poor performance. Taking away choice and forcing, (yes, forcing) kids into underperforming schools is not the answer, no matter how well intentioned the people in them might be.

[Glendon Rand]

Mr. Bowen,

I was disappointed with the cheap shots that you took at Nokomis High School in your op-ed piece in the Bangor Daily News yesterday. Your comments that Etna/Dixmont (SAD 38) students would be "forced to attend Nokomis" and that Nokomis is "one of Maine's lower performing high schools" are not fair and does not give all of the facts.

First, you are talking about a school - not a building - but a school where students, parents, and teachers work hard every day to provide a quality education. Many graduates from Nokomis have gone on to some of the best colleges in the U.S. and have had fine careers. For example Yellow Light Breen who went to Harvard University (in fact gave the commencement address at his graduation) and is a Senior Vice-President at Bangor Savings Bank. Nokomis has an innovative career pathways program and has one of the best music programs in the state. Many students are proud to go there, and insinuating that students will be "forced" to go there shows a lack of respect for those students.

Second, you mention that almost a quarter of SAD 38 students choose to go to a high school other than Nokomis. The largest receiver of those students is John Bapst Memorial High School - a private school. John Bapst receives $8843 per student plus almost $1000 in other fees. Nokomis receives $6673 per student. It is no surprise that John Bapst can offer programing (as well as marketing monies) that Nokomis cannot afford. Plus, John Bapst discriminates against special education and low performing students in the admissions process. I wonder if Nokomis would improve on their "low performing" status if they suddenly received $3K more per student and could refuse SPED students?

You certainly have the right to advocate for school choice, I just wish that you would not put down public schools in the process.