Gov. Paul LePage casts his refusal to officially nominate William Beardsley as a fight between he and the Legislature. It is much more than that. At its core, this is about LePage again refusing to do the basic job of governing.
Maine law requires that the state have a commissioner of education, appointed by the governor. “The commissioner is the chief executive officer of the department,” the law says. The commissioner’s job is “providing educational public leadership for the State.” Yet, Maine has been without an education commissioner since November 2014.
As a result, two new rules regarding special education and student vaccinations were shelved because no one at the Department of Education was authorized to sign off on them, the Office of the Attorney General concluded. Other routine work at the department also was in jeopardy, the AG’s office warned the governor’s office in emails last month.
After the governor’s last confirmed commissioner, Jim Rier, left on medical leave in November 2014, the governor swore in his policy adviser, Tom Desjardin, as acting commissioner. He never nominated Desjardin for the permanent job, so he was never subject to legislative confirmation.
LePage tapped Beardsley, the former president of Husson University, as acting commissioner after Desjardin’s term as acting commissioner expired in October. Because state law requires that an acting commissioner come from within the ranks of the department he is to lead, Beardsley took a job in the Department of Education for one day before becoming acting commissioner on the next day of business.
LePage later nominated Beardsley to serve as commissioner but withdrew the nomination in February, concerned that opposition from Democrats would derail it.
In April, LePage approved a financial order that created a temporary Department of Education position, that of “Public Service Executive III,” so Beardsley could remain in charge of day-to-day operations — again, without legislative confirmation — until April 17, 2018.
Last month, the attorney general’s office refused to sign off on rules regarding student immunization and special education because no one at the department, including Beardsley, had the authority to sign them. The office also warned the LePage administration that other commissioner duties, such as signing off on student transfers between school districts and revoking teacher certifications, could not be fulfilled by Beardsley.
“The absence of a duly appointed Commissioner or Temporary Deputy Commissioner could cause decisions to be delayed or subject to challenge,” Linda Pistner, chief deputy attorney general, wrote in a May 3 email to Avery Day, the governor’s legal counsel. The email exchange was in response to a request from the Department of Education to have all the commissioner’s duties delegated to a deputy commissioner.
Pistner listed a dozen instances where the lack of commissioner at the department could be problematic, including teacher certification decisions, school funding, student transfers and school construction.
To fix this problem — and to continue to circumvent the law — LePage last week appointed Debra Plowman, a former lawmaker with no official education experience before she joined the department as a legislative liaison, as the department’s temporary deputy commissioner. Her first official act was to appoint Beardsley as deputy commissioner. His appointment, by law, can last only six months.
The simpler solution, of course, is for the governor to officially nominate Beardsley to the position, which the law requires, and go through the nomination process outlined in the state Constitution. This would ensure that Maine’s students, parents, educators and taxpayers have a functional Department of Education that fulfills its legal responsibilities.
