Jon Reisman

I took another snap trip down the airline and beyond, this time all the way to Windham and back, with a drive through drive-by-shooting third-world Lewiston before entering the First Congressional District. I wasn’t asked for my papers or passport despite the Collins/Charles/LePage stickers on my car. I wasn’t overly worried, perhaps naively believing that sanctuary and asylum policies would be “equitably” applied to white male Republican oppressors. 

I went down to Windham as a contributor to the Maine Education Initiative (MEI) (https://fixmaineschools.com) of the Maine Policy Institute (MPI). The MEI is documenting the declining performance and dysfunction of Maine’s public K-12 system and advocating for improvements in accountability, transparency, and results. The director of the Education Initiative is former Republican Representative Heidi Sampson of York County. Remembering that I was married in South Berwick, I told Heidi I wouldn’t hold her York County provenance against her if she would forgive my preference for Washington County’s woods and waters. 

Maine’s K-12 public schools have gone from being among the best in the nation to the worst across a broad spectrum of metrics, including reading, literacy, and the skills needed for critical thinking and lifelong learning. This decline has accelerated under Gov. Mills, Hannah Pingree, and Democratic control, with greater emphasis on woke ideological indoctrination goals, including Diversity, (undefined) Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) over merit, social and emotional learning over reading and critical thinking, and educator over parental control on gender identity, transparency, and budget/spending policy. The result is a dysfunctional disaster for Maine’s students and future. Presiding over, promoting, ignoring, and/or failing to fix a dysfunctional educational system is yet another example of unsustainable Democratic policy malpractice. If you want more of the same, promote Hannah Pingree to the Blaine House. Hannah was chair of the Children’s Cabinet and director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF). Under her tenure, state education funding has increased to the magic 55% goal even as academic performance has plummeted. Education policy initiatives have notably included raising the statewide minimum teaching salary (pushed by the Maine Education Association), promoting/allowing biological boys in girls’ sports and spaces, hiding educator gender transformation efforts from parents, promoting “equity” without defining it, opposing and obstructing federal and Republican school choice efforts, and ignoring/failing to recognize the decline and dangerous dysfunction of Maine’s schools. The ban on cell phones and screens is a day late/dollar short response, and does not address the root woke cause of the problem.

Here’s my suggested education policy innovation agenda:

Adopt a Maine-made version of the Mississippi Miracle. In 2013, Mississippi adopted a series of educational reforms emphasizing reading, literacy, continuous assessment, early intervention, and critical thinking skills. Mississippi’s schools and students have ascended even as Maine’s schools cratered, even (maybe especially) post-COVID.

Ditch DEI in favor of individual merit. At the very least, Maine needs to define equity if the woke left retains power. The problem is, an honest definition of equity (engineered equal outcomes based on race, gender, and oppressor/oppressed status) is a bit too transparently discriminatory and inequitable as far as the left is concerned. Pursuing a deliberately undefined policy goal is pure policy malpractice, but that is clearly Hannah’s record and intent.

Return and prioritize academic basics over social and emotional learning.

Restore the trust and partnership between parents and educators by ending the lack of transparency in gender identity policies and ceasing efforts to indoctrinate rather than educate.

Promote greater parental control, student opportunity, and educator accountability by supporting school choice- charter schools, educational savings accounts, and vouchers.  

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at jreisman@maine.edu.