Despite the onslaught of state and national criticism over his most recent attack on public schools and the misconceptions he is spreading, Gov. Paul LePage continues to tout his ABC plan for educational improvement, becoming even more aggressive in maligning education leaders in Maine.
In his weekly radio address of July 28, he told his audience that in response to the recently released Harvard study of academic improvement among students in 49 states, he had to come up with radical measures, such as threatening legislation that would force school districts to pay for remedial college classes, because in terms of improving education themselves, “Superintendents, union bosses and principals have not shared their plans with me,” the implication being that they have no such plans. This is an unconscionable misrepresentation.
Surprisingly even for Paul LePage, in introducing his ABC’s on Wednesday, the governor made no reference to AMO, I&S and MEEC, acronyms for the three workgroups developing the state’s robust plan for school improvement, already under way at the capitol.
The Accountability and Improvement System is the most comprehensive public school reform plan this state has ever seen and was formed in part to fulfill statutory language that the governor himself signed into law. The Commissioner of Education and other Department of Education staff preside over the workgroups, which are populated by a diverse set of public school and community stakeholders. Prominently among these stakeholders are representatives of the very education leaders the governor says have “not shared their plans” with him.
As a teacher appointed by the Maine Education Association to the Maine Educator Effectiveness Council (MEEC) workgroup, I have spent many hours this summer elbow to elbow with superintendents, principals, school board members, and their “union bosses,” along with business executives, higher education officials and fellow teachers. As one might imagine, in a room full of diverse professional interests, conflicts sometimes arise, but I can tell you that the people on these councils share a common interest in and commitment to providing all of Maine’s children with a viable education, and that we are working diligently and collaboratively to shape the system that will guide school leaders and teachers in that endeavor.
Contrary to what he claims, and having commissioned the work himself, the governor is fully aware of all of this, and it is he who is not sharing.
Instead, he is wielding his own unilateral plan like a weapon, publicly insulting and threatening even his own people, making false allegations, and most important, drawing attention from the federal Department of Education, which will decide, based on the work of the Accountability and Improvement System councils, whether or not to award Maine a much-needed waiver that will afford the state flexibility in meeting the requirements of the rigid No Child Left Behind law.
The governor would have served Maine public schools and their students well in using the occasion of the Harvard study’s release to honor the hard work and commitment of the associations and individuals who are developing the Accountability and Improvement System. He could have asked his commissioner to report on the work of the councils, or better yet, asked representatives of the many associations on the council to give briefings. He could have asked superintendents, principals and teachers to describe their district strategic plans for implementing the new system. He could have done a lot of things to broadcast the intensive work we are doing in Maine to improve our public schools and gain control of No Child Left Behind. Instead, he lambasted us. It might seem reasonable to conclude that, by publicly undermining the collective efforts of those who are carrying out his own marching orders, the governor of Maine has shot himself in the foot. Except that’s usually an accident.
Mary Paine is a teacher in Oakland and an MEA representative to the Maine Educator Effectiveness Council workgroup of the Accountability and Improvement System. The public can view the composition and monitor the progress of this and the other workgroups at Maine’s Department of Education website.
Keep up the good fight Mary, unfortunately we have to not only battle ignorance within the schools but also in the Blaine House as well. One day this dark cloud will pass.
Education is this State has failed the majority of the students. The ones that do graduate (4 of 5) graduate from HS without the proper skills to enter college without remediation classes required. The graduates are ill prepared for life in the real world
There is no way a student put in the effort then needed remedial classes. If you need remedial classes then you did not put in the work. Graduates are ill prepared because they do not know what the real life is. There are kids that have never done laundry.
Data please.
State of Maine Try not to let facts get in your way
“The ones that do graduate (4 of 5) graduate from HS without the proper
skills to enter college without remediation classes required. ”
Where did you get that statistic?
Great column. I know of several Maine HS graduates who have gone on to college including out of state blue chip schools and who have done quite well. And I’m not even in education so I don’t know that many students.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you , these are the times that try men’s souls, bare bodkin. If you can name these without google you will be equal to my kids entering high school. Education starts at home and your pick of bed time stories. Please put your answers up. They loved the GGGG lim po po river.
It is well established that the MEA is far more interested in saving union jobs than they are in improving education. This is what I hear from people who are very much involved in Maine schools.
Which janitor do you talk to?
Like who? Anti- education thugs from the Heritage Center, LePage’s out of state ideological masters?
What does this opinion piece from the MEA have to do with deportation??? Or was she just trying to get attention?
Titles are created by the editors, not the authors, and it’s been changed.
This is an excellent assessment of the on-going work of educational professionals in this state. Everyone of us has a high stake in the success of the educational system. Please take the time to become a little more aware of the efforts of many hard-working individuals by reading this article.
No politician ever lost an election because he bashed teachers or the public school system.
I was a public school student and I can read and write.
MEA doesn’t like LePage? I’m getting that feeling.
Almost anyone in Maine does not like Le Page.
LePage is in a race to see how much damage he can to to our state and its people before his single term is up.
When the Governor start’s publicly ‘whacking’ his own people, well, folk’s it’s time to start looking for the lifeboat’s since this is one ship that’s going to go under by no less than it’s own Captain’s determination and effort. That, and that he’s ‘shooting’ his own crew who he needs to save the ship, should be telling everybody that it’s high time to do what’s neccessary in the public’s interest, do what Paulie and Company originally brought them into do and forget any political pressure, or other nonsense that’s being ‘applied’ to them, and do what’s needed.
And if Paulie gets upset, well, Governor, GET OVER IT and move on. With November and the election’s coming, and the school year start even closer, Maine’s voter’s and parent’s are gonna be keeping a close eye on what comes out of these so-called educational reform group’s. And the more they are interfered with, or deliberately mainipulated thru repeated ‘review’s’ simply because the DOE or the Governor’s Office doesn’t like what they are saying is gonna speak volumes to these same voter’s and parent’s come Election Day, and even more so next spring when numerous local School Board seat’s come open. This is one fight that the Governor should have had the smart’s to back off from and let the folk’s who know get on with their job and then talk to them and explore the option’s open to both him, the teacher’s and parent’s and the State’s DOE.
” He could have asked superintendents, principals and teachers to
describe their district strategic plans for implementing the new system.”
Sort of like asking the fox to describe his strategic plans to improve security of the hen house.