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Rural educators and a student tell Education Committee new Act 73 maps threaten small-town schools
Summary
School leaders and a student from Orleans County told the Education Committee on Feb. 13 that maps tied to Act 73 and a shift toward larger elected school districts could depersonalize decisions, threaten small schools and fail to deliver promised savings; witnesses also flagged rising health, transportation and special-education costs.
On Feb. 13, rural educators and a student from Orleans County testified to the Education Committee that recently released maps connected with Act 73 and proposals to create larger school districts risk closing small local schools and removing town-level representation.
"There is no evidence that this type of structure has any cost savings," said Lisa Muffark, principal of Graspberries Schools, who described her district as a two-campus public pre-K–12 system with deep community ties. Muffark said her district reduced an initial budget proposal that projected a 12% increase down to a 6% increase after local review and cuts, including a 1.5 full-time-equivalent staff reduction.
Muffark told the committee the maps introduced by "House education chair Conlon," which she said delineated roughly 27 school districts, would replace supervisory-union governance with larger elected district…
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