Of the proposals that have surfaced so far, a plan advanced by Stephen L. Bowen, a teacher, former state legislator and now adjunct scholar at the Maine Heritage Policy Center, has more merit than any we’ve seen.

Bowen believes it is possible to consolidate many school administrative functions in a way that will achieve substantial monetary savings — a primary goal of the Governor — without sacrificing local control, parental involvement and quality of education. That approach involves the creation of Education Service Districts, which already have been employed in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Minnesota as a compromise to the kind of consolidation proposed by the Governor.

Bowen, who grew up right here in Hancock County in the small town of Penobscot, discusses his proposal in detail in “The Maine View,” a Heritage Policy Center publication that can be found online at www.mainepolicy.org.

He offers a compelling argument, bolstered by considerable and thorough research, that consolidation that extends beyond combining very small school districts — those below the 300- to 500-student level — produces minimal, if any, cost savings and may actually result in cost increases. Further, Bowen notes that better than half of all administrative costs occur at the individual school level and will continue unless schools are closed and consolidated, which the Governor says will not occur under his plan.

Bowen also cites studies that indicate a correlation between smaller school districts and high student scores on standardized tests and show that parents become less involved in schools as a consequence of consolidation.

“How does the state maintain the high level of student achievement, parental involvement and administrative accountability more commonly found in small districts, yet squeeze some administrative savings out of the system?” asks Bowen.

The answer, he suggests, is the creation of regional cooperative associations — Education Service Districts — that take on the management of various shared non-instructional services, thus gaining economies of scale freeing school boards to “focus their time and efforts on the fundamental mission of schools, which is teaching and learning.” Just as companies often contract out services such as payroll, accounting, advertising, shipping and information technology, so could school districts do the same with an ESD.

Bowen cites studies showing that savings from collaboration facilitated by existing ESDs ranges from 15 percent to 50 percent. For example, he says, a single ESD in Minnesota was credited by its 98 member districts with saving a combined $16 million a year. Applying a formula used in one study to Maine, Bowen calculated that a savings of 20 percent on even a quarter of the approximately $627 million that Maine spends annually on non-instructional services would yield savings of more than $30 million.

One of the greatest concerns about the Governor’s consolidation proposal is transfer of local control to the single boards governing the 26 super-sized school districts. That would not occur under the ESD model. Since ESDs most commonly are governed by a board comprised of school board officials from member districts, local boards would retain both oversight authority and the power of the purse.

Bowen offers a “roadmap” for the creation of Education Service Districts in Maine, noting that the implementation could take place in stages with local school officials identifying areas where regional cooperation makes sense. He also discusses the statutory changes that would be necessary to allow for the creation of ESDs.

With every passing day, it is becoming more evident that the Governor’s dramatic top-down proposal is deeply flawed. Bowen correctly observes “that the people in the best position to make decisions about the most appropriate and cost-effective means of providing educational services to our kids are not bureaucrats in Augusta or two dozen superintendents scattered across the state, but those closest to the classroom — parents, the school community and locally elected school boards.”

Bowen’s proposal is a thoughtful and measured approach that acknowledges the need for greater efficiency in Maine’s K-12 school system and counters the flawed notion that fewer, larger districts will produce better results at lower cost than the current system. The Education Service District model deserves the same level of discussion, both within the 123rd Legislature and in communities across the state, that the Governor’s proposal is now receiving. Every Maine citizen has a huge stake in the outcome of the debate.