Ways & Means amendment would ask commission to consider community voice in elementary school closure decisions

At a Ways & Means meeting, members considered an amendment from Representative Peter Conlon that would add language to the Commission on the Future of Public Education’s charge requiring the commission to consider whether communities served by an elementary school should have a voice in decisions about school closures and, if so, to recommend what that process should entail.

The amendment was described to the committee as a targeted change to the commission’s directive aimed at addressing concerns about how possible structural changes to the K-12 system could affect small and rural schools. Representative Peter Conlon said the amendment had been straw-polled previously in the House Education Committee, and cited that committee’s result: “this amendment was straw poll in our committee, unanimously, 10 0 1.”

Conlon told the Ways & Means group the change is being offered as an addition to the commission’s list of topics to consider while developing…