Consolidation foes will be at polls

Associated Press, October 30, 2007

(excerpt) The chief organizer of a drive to repeal Maine's new school system consolidation initiative says petition circulators will be out in force at state polling places next week.

Skip Greenlaw of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools, calling the consolidation plan "a threat to our Maine culture," told reporters Tuesday that Gov. John Baldacci, who championed the consolidation plan, and Maine lawmakers who enacted it as part of the state budget are wrong when they claim it will save money.

"The fact is that this law will shift the local cost of education from one community to another community within the proposed regional school unit," Greenlaw said in a prepared statement at a State House news conference.

Greenlaw said the coalition is not against the idea of consolidation, but opposes forced consolidation.