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Use the form below to write a letter to your local newspaper editor.

In spite of declining enrollment, Maine's school expenditures are still growing and driving our state's tax burden ever higher. Young families dispersing into suburbs are bringing rising school costs and increased property taxes to formerly rural communities, and the state now spends millions on redundant school buildings and adminstration.

While quality education is crucial to our future prosperity, inefficient administrative spending keeps us from investing in other high priorities, like economic development and lower taxes. The GrowSmart-Brookings Report makes these specific recommendations for streamlining the governance of K-12 education:

• Reduce system administration expenditures to the vicinity of $195/student. This reduction would yield about $25 million in annual budget savings.
• Set clear targets and provide grants for voluntary regional efforts. Encourage cooperation among school districts, which are already collaborating on everything from transportation to food service to district consolidation.
• Begin work to dramatically reduce the number of school administrative units. Any consolidation plan should commit to and be evaluated against measurable financial goals.
• Develop a statewide K-12 capital expenditure plan conceived from a more regional perspective. Before building new schools, governments should make more efficient use of existing buildings beyond town and district boundaries.
• As districts consolidate, preserve local community schools. Even as we spend millions on new schools in the suburbs, we're abandoning school buildings in older neighborhoods, where they serve as valuable community centers.