Small Schools

Part of the fear expressed over the past year regarding school district consolidation has been concerns about small towns losing their small schools. Throughout the process the Governor and Commissioner repeated reassured constituents that the consolidation plans were not masked attempts at closing small schools. But it is clear Maine is going to have to do something about small schools soon as the student population steadily declines.

The Maine Sunday Telegram provides a sobering picture of the realities facing many small towns. Young families are simply not moving into small-town Maine, and those there can't find the work they need to survive there.

It comes down to simple arithmetic, "from 197,772 in 2006, statewide enrollment is projected to drop to about 175,000 by 2012," the Telegram reports in the article.

Read the whole article and feel free to comment.

~John Brandt