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Education task force recommends cooperative service areas, rejects CTE map 7-3
Summary
A legislative task force presented a report under Act 73 recommending cooperative educational service areas and voluntary mergers to improve equity and save costs, but it voted 7-3 against a CTE-centered map while lawmakers pressed for clearer maps, data and implementation plans.
A joint hearing of the state Senate and House education committees on the task force charged under Act 73 heard a report that stops short of forced statewide consolidation and instead recommends creating cooperative educational service areas (regional hubs for shared services) and encouraging voluntary mergers, while rejecting one proposed CTE-focused map by a 7-3 vote.
"We voted against the CTE map — I believe it was 7-3 — because of the issues I mentioned before," said Senator Martina Rakulik, one of the task force co-chairs, summarizing the panel's judgment that the CTE map produced major equity and scale problems. The task force said it generated several mapping exercises, including a single-district and value-based options, but found they did not meet the statutory qualifiers in Act 73.
The task force emphasized equity, minimizing student disruption and logistical feasibility in its statutory charge. Retired superintendent Jay Adams, a task force…
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