AUGUSTA - The Senate followed the House’s lead Wednesday night and voted 28-7 for a statewide school consolidation plan that will reduce the existing 290 districts in the state to somewhere around 80 – a proposal that even those who support it called an experiment that will need constant monitoring to succeed.

“This thing may fall flat on its nose or it may take off,” said Sen. Peter Mills, a Somerset Republican who has been a strong advocate of school consolidation and was one of 10 Republicans to vote for the proposal along with all 18 Democrats.

“Vote green and go home and take your medicine,” he urged his colleagues, saying the real work begins now to sell the plan to local school boards and concerned residents, who fear what it will do their community schools.

“I have had, and do have, some real concerns about the education piece,” said Sen. Bill Diamond, a Cumberland Democrat. “It’s a tremendous experiment, and what’s waiting in the wings are the children.”

The Senate vote followed a 112-29 enactment vote in the House, which gave its initial approval Tuesday night after a long day of negotiations where changes were made to accommodate concerns raised by a caucus of rural legislators.

The plan calls for districts of between 1,200 to 2,500 students, and still aims for the creation of 80 districts statewide or “a number of units that meet administrative efficiencies” as outlined by the new statute.

The first mandatory local vote on the new districts would be in June of 2008, and all districts must be formed by July of 2009 or face penalties. Those penalties include a 50 percent cut in state aid for school administration, or for property-rich towns that get minimal subsidy right now, a 50 percent cut in special education funding. School districts that don’t consolidate also would get less favorable treatment when it comes to state school construction funds.

“We’re reminded once again that this is a rural state and our education policy should not be an urban-based policy,” said Sen. John Nutting, an Androscoggin Democrat, complimenting the changes made in the plan to accommodate rural concerns.

Gov. John Baldacci had inserted school consolidation into the budget to force action on a proposal this year and so he could book $36.5 million in school administrative savings. His plan was much more dramatic than the one just adopted; it called for the existing 290 districts in the state to be reduced to 26.

While the school plan attracted most of the controversy, crafting the budget was not easy, given that Democrats and Republicans were more than $100 million apart when negotiations started. That gap was closed with no new major taxes, even though Gov. Baldacci had originally proposed a $1 hike in the cigarette tax.

The budget also flat-funds Medicaid – the other big cost-driver in state government, along with education – and that has advocates for those with mental illness worried since their care is one of the areas targeted to create savings.

“We have answered the call for more efficient government, better access to quality education and the improvement of Maine’s quality of life with this bill,” said Senate president Beth Edmonds, whose office noted there is nearly $2 billion in state subsidy to local schools in the $6.3 billion budget. There is also $553 million for higher education and $1.2 billion for heath care for Maine’s poor families and the elderly.

“We respected the left and right of our caucuses and the north and south of our state,” said Appropriation’s chairman Rep. Jeremy Fischer, a Presque Isle Democrat, in describing the agreements on the budget and school consolidation plan that ultimately passed.

Rep. Sawin Millett, a Waterford Republican, ticked off the reasons the Appropriations Committee had to deal with school consolidation in his remarks before the final budget vote Wednesday night.

He said there has been a 16 percent drop in school enrollment, but administrative costs have grown by 54 percent. And while the state has pumped more money into K-12 education after voters demanded the state fund 55 percent of the costs, property taxes have not gone down.

“There’s been $810 million in additional spending,” for state education aid, Rep. Millett said. “That should have produced property tax relief, but we’re all struggling to see it.”

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, who first went out to try and sell the governor’s consolidation plan to the state and then worked with the Legislature to craft an alternative, received praise from members of both parties for her efforts. After the vote on the budget, she said she was “delighted” by the outcome.

“We’re on the right track,” she said, to preserve quality education while reducing costs.

Gov. Baldacci released a statement following the vote, saying he was proud of the bipartisan effort to pass a budget and craft a school consolidation plan.

“We are reducing unnecessary administration in K-12 education and focusing our resources on the classroom, where they belong, while providing property tax relief. We are streamlining state government, especially in human services, and we’re investing in higher education and innovation,” he said.

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