Governor Baldacci is not the first person to suggest that Maine needs to reorganize its school districts to encourage property tax relief. In fact, many of the recent reports issued by different think-tanks throughout Maine and the nation recommend that our state not only continue its funding increase to education, but find a way to streamline how we spend that money.

School reorganization recommendations were so compelling that five different legislators, on behalf of different education and community-based groups, submitted their ideas on how we could better consolidate school resources without closing schools. The Appropriations and Education committees will look at all of those ideas in developing the final budget.

One of the first questions I get from most constituents is why school reorganization is such a hot topic in the Legislature right now. Our state ranks eighth in the country for the amount of money spent on every student. It would be great if that rank were deserved because the money goes directly to what it costs to best educate our students.

However, most of that funding is funneled through administrative overhead. Administrative overhead are the costs of actually managing a school district, rather than what it takes to educate a student - teachers, textbooks, faculty and student support services and facilities.

Maine is consistently regarded throughout the nation for its commitment to education, and the scores of last spring's free SATs tell us as much about how well our students are doing as what more we can do to prepare them for college and the real world. But our approach to a top-quality education comes with a price tag that just keeps getting higher.

Eliminating some of those costs is expected to lower property taxes, and avoid duplication of efforts to help create more opportunity through education.

The Legislature's Appropriations and Education committees will consider all the school district consolidation plans in a joint public hearing held at the Augusta Civic Center beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 5. Following the hearing and work sessions, they will work together to develop a plan that best streamlines the costs of managing school districts without compromising the quality of educating any Maine student.

This is just the beginning of many conversations on how to more efficiently allocate school resources. Any member of the public can offer his or her opinion on any or all of the six different proposals at the hearing. If you're interested in expressing your opinion, but can't be there in person, you can send a written copy of your testimony to the committee in advance. You can also listen to the hearing online through the Maine Legislature's Web site at http://janus.state.me.us/legis/.

This is an important issue for our area and our state, and I'm happy to provide you with any information I can about these proposals and their developments. Feel free to call me at home at 892-6591, or e-mail me at RepMarkBryant@yahoo.com for more information or to share your thoughts.