WHAT MAINERS ARE SAYING: Governor Mills Has Fought For Us. It’s Clear LePage Won’t.

Drew Gattine, Chair of the Maine Democratic Party, issued the following statement in response to Paul LePage’s “plan” for education in Maine:

“Paul LePage failed Maine parents and children for eight years. He underfunded public schools, proposed cutting funding for schools and child care even further, attacked and criticized teachers, went through multiple education commissioners (even suggesting appointing himself commissioner at one point), did little to combat food insecurity among Maine’s kids, and set the worst example for our children. There is a reason why Republicans and Democrats joined together in bipartisan unity time after time to reject LePage’s attacks on public education.

“Maine has a longstanding tradition of local control, one in which we empower parents and school boards to work together to decide what belongs in schools and classrooms. Now, LePage is taking a national Republican playbook and trying to import it into Maine – putting government square in the middle of these discussions to play referee. Maine parents don’t want – and don’t need – Paul LePage getting in the way.

“What we do need is a governor who actually supports local control and parents collaborating with school boards, who delivers the financial resources schools need to provide a good education for Maine kids, and who fights to pay teachers’ properly. That’s Janet Mills.”

Even Representative Paul Stearns (R-Guilford), the Republican Ranking Member of the Legislature’s Education Committee, has thrown cold water on LePage’s so-called parental bill of rights, “calling it unnecessary because school boards exist to provide parents with educational input”, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Background on how LePage failed Maine’s parents, students, and teachers:

• LePage tried repeatedly to cut benefits for poor and food insecure children, vetoing or refusing to sign multiple bills to expand access to free or reduced price meals at schools, and targeting Head Start and child care assistance programs.

• He proposed massive cuts to childcare and early childhood education funding on a number of occasions, including one multi-million dollar cut that deprived an estimated 1,700 working Maine families of childcare subsidies.

• LePage also underfunded the share of state funding for schools by more than $1 billion, forcing municipalities to raise property taxes to help fund schools. As a result of his attacks on teachers and schools, LePage was dubbed an “enemy of public education” by the Press Herald editorial board