LD 1193
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LD 1193 Title Page RESOLUTION, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine To Ensure Equal... Page 2 of 2
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LR 1757
Item 1

 
Constitutional amendment. Resolved: Two thirds of each branch of the
Legislature concurring, that the following amendment to the
Constitution of Maine be proposed:

 
Constitution, Art. VIII, Pt. First, §§3 to 6 are enacted to read:

 
Section 3.__Equal access to good education.__In any effort the
State undertakes to aid local public schools it must provide for
distribution of that aid among the various schools and school
units in a manner designed to equalize the ability of every
school to provide a good education and must take full account of
unavoidable differences in resources and costs, including those
that may arise because of the school's location.

 
Section 4.__Protecting access in rural areas.__The State may
undertake no action that would contribute to the closing of any
public school if doing so would lengthen a child's daily time on
a school bus to more than 2 hours for a child under 12 years of
age or more than 3 hours for a child 12 years of age or older.

 
Section 5.__Local control of schools.__The State may not
compel municipalities to join school administrative districts or
school administrative districts to join larger districts.__The
State may, however, adjust the state funding to account for any
inefficiencies caused by the small size of a district, but only
to the extent it can be demonstrated that the district's joining
with adjoining towns or districts would result in immediate
reduction in the per student costs for all municipalities
concerned.

 
Section 6.__Right to access to local schools.__The rights
established under this Part belong to and may be asserted by
every citizen of the State.

 
; and be it
further

 
Constitutional referendum procedure; form of question; effective date. Resolved:
That the municipal officers of this State shall notify the
inhabitants of their respective cities, towns and plantations to
meet, in the manner prescribed by law for holding a statewide
election, at a statewide election, on the Tuesday following the
first Monday of November following the passage of this
resolution, to vote upon the ratification of the amendment
proposed in this resolution by voting upon the following
question:

 
"Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to prevent the
State from requiring that public schools be incorporated into
larger school districts and to prevent the State from closing a
public school if it will result in a child under


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