Students gather at Stockton Borough Elementary in New Jersey. The borough recently voted to consolidate school districts with three neighboring districts. The number of school districts continued to decline during the Great Recession. (Warren Cooper/Hunterdon County Democrat)
When then-Gov. John Baldacci signed legislation in 2007 ordering Maine’s 290 school districts to consolidate into just 80 districts or face penalties, the intention was to get as much state money to students in the classroom as possible.
“Our population was declining, and we just had too much school administration,” Baldacci said in an interview withStateline. “Putting (school consolidation) into the budget irritated the superintendents and the school boards, but I wanted to make sure we actually got it done.”
Maine lost 58 school districts between 2007 and 2012, according to the U.S. Census of Governments, not nearly as many as policymakers hoped. Resistance to school consolidation in Maine, just like across the country, was tremendously strong.
“It was a shotgun marriage,” said Doug Smith, superintendent of the Glenburn school district. The district consolidated budgets with two others in 2010, and the unified district was responsible for 1,400 students and five schools.
“We were forced to do it or incur penalties, and there were no incentives,” Smith said.
Maine’s consolidation mirrors a century-long national trend toward fewer school districts, beginning with the move away from one-room schoolhouses. The number of independent school districts shrank nearly 90 perce