Comments on: Education

By: sheen

sheen — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:40:16 +0000

I am voting for SHAWN MOODYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:43:00 +0000

Hi, my name is Hannah, I graduated from high school in 2009 and I still have no idea what I want to do with my life. I joined the Maine Air National Guard at the age of 17, I completed all my training in Texas and was back home in early December. I went to school at UMM during the 2010 spring semester and took general requirement classes. I didn’t do well, I had little ambition and was down in the dumps because I felt as if I were the only person out of all my friends that didn’t have their future planed out as to what I’m going to do with my life. I’ve grown up in Maine my whole life, and I want to live here my whole life, but it feels like that every person thinks that if your a women and don’t attain a college degree than your going no where in life. I know that college opens doors of possibility, but I just don’t see the sense in going to college and getting a degree that’s going to cost me $100,000 and then decide that thats not what I want to do in life as a career. I live in Jonesport Maine and the norm is for men to either graduate high school or drop out and work in the fishing industry their whole life. Then for the women to graduate high school, go to college and get an education, and if you don’t go to college then your going no where. More and more people are becoming less supportive of people who are not going to college, this is wrong. I work and pay my bills on time, and I’m not on welfare, I want to go to college eventually just not now, but I’m sick of people thinking that I wont succeed just because I’m not going to college right now. Moody if you can show me that you support young people in my position than you will have my vote.

By: Shawn D

Shawn D — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:48:47 +0000

I from a small town that join RSU24 and we were promised new program for the gift and talent and if they could not get the program there they would moved the child to a school that did have that class i.e. like math
We were debt free when we joined the RSU and were forced to join or pay stiff penalties. So like so many other towns we joined. Now we face huge tax increases because ellsworth has a new high school, middle school and Pennisula has a new school. Now they want to close our school because were overbudget!The thing that has put us overbudget are requiring a salad bar that was never put into the budget in the first place. This town alot of kids get free lunch/reduced lunch and they want you to pay for the salad bar.i.e. the salad bar food gets thrown out and wasted.
What would you do to end this RSU mess and give us our school back?

By: Joe C

Joe C — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:09:14 +0000

I think you are doing great. As a Westbrook High Votec Graduate, it is tough to say what had steered me from College to the Military. I am now working full time and going to USM full time. From what I am experiencing, I feel the system is only set up to work with 20 percent of the High School Graduates. Between finding money to attend college and enrolling in the correct degree program it is no wonder 18 year olds are walking away from it. As with our k-12 educators have the correct professor in college, makes a difference. It is all about finding a balance and it seems to me that we are spending time and money on the bottom 20 percent and the top 10 percent.

By: mariah

mariah — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:06:47 +0000

Kudos for the above comments of “A Maine Educator!”

I have taught at the elementary, high school and college levels, and in the last several years have seen some very disturbing trends;

Who is coming into public education and why? :
1. Most HS grads at the top of their classes choose to go into professions other than teaching because of lack of public respect and lower income levels for educators.
2. A significant percentage of those who do go into education choose to do so, not because they have the intellectual and imaginative capacity to inspire and educate, but rather because they see teaching as a relatively easy and financially safe occupation with summers off.
3. Sadly, few of the financially disadvantaged undergraduate college students I came in contact with had even passable communication skills and almost none had been inspired and educated to be able to bring that to their future students.

Non-local, top-down travesties
1. Teachers are being required to “paint by the numbers” rather than encouraged (or even allowed) to use their own creativity to inspire and meet the individual needs of young people.
2. When manufacturing and business models are applied to education, the human element of how learning is inspired is lost. Education of young people is an entirely different process than manufacturing a product.
3. Just as in government and health care, paperwork is consuming enormous amounts of time and money which could be directed toward education.
4. Textbook selection is becoming a serious issue with standards being set in Texas for students in Maine.

Teachers unions and merit pay
1. Without unions, teachers would be earning even less, making it an even less desirable occupation for talented young people.
2. Tenure is a double-edged sword. With it, some unskilled or unmotivated teachers are protected. Without it, teachers will be let go after only a few years experience in order to save money which would be paid more experienced teachers.
3. Merit pay – as questioned above – what are the standards to determine who qualifies? It can encourage “teaching to the test” which is a disastrous way to prepare young people for the world.

Possibilities?
1. Consult the inspiring and effective teachers around the state. What are their thoughts???

By: mike

mike — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:44:01 +0000

First thing I would do is get rid of as much of theMaine Dept. of Education as possible, decide which UMS campuses would have which specific programs to avoid duplication and eliminate all others, possibly eliminate several UMS campuses, cut down on administrative personnel and make a sincere effort to make UMS professors work hard to earn their money. As crazy as it might sound, pay the best teachers the most money and pay school administrators less than your highest paid teacher in the system. Perhaps many of them who couldn’t survive in the classroom and are there for the money and benefits would do something else. The whole pyramid of education pay is assend backwards–best teachers deserve highest pay!

By: A Maine Educator

A Maine Educator — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:57:27 +0000

As a 20 year Maine educator I encourage you to think about the following:
1. Multiple pathways for students (as you have stated) college bound, military and perhaps most important work force bound.
2. Local control. There are too many UNFUNDED state mandates passed onto districts. Provide districts the control to run their schools as they see fit and provide financial incentives for those that are successful. One size does NOT fit all – consolidation.
3. Look closely at the high level of power our unions have in education.
4. The current Essential Spending Formula is a joke – as previously stated – one size does NOT fit all

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:24:05 +0000

Shawn,

I believe your view on Charter Schools is misinformed. Maine has always had a tradition of school choice. Many communities still allow their students to chose what school to go to. Public charter schools are a natural continuation of Maine’s school choice tradition. The interests that have blocked it have been the same interests that have blocked other important education reforms such as merit pay for teachers. It makes little sense to have one commonsense education reform and not the other.
Almost every state in the country has laws that allow for the establishment of public charter schools- Maine continues to lag behind. To continue to block charter schools will only make matters in the state worse.
In every state, students in public charter schools perform at a much higher level than those in traditional public schools.
And to compare charter schools to Dirigo is off-base. Charter schools are proven successes throughout this country. Dirigo, and any other “public option” health reforms, have always been failures. Charter schools do not re-invent the wheel in Maine: They will give a 2nd wheel for parents and students to choose from.

Giving parents the choice of how to educate their children, not the unions, is the answer. As an independent you should come down on the side of parents and give them educational choices.

By: Kati Edd

Kati Edd — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:01:20 +0000

I would like to say “wow” what a inspiring post. This is really great. Keep doing what you’re doing!!

By: Karen Libby

Karen Libby — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:59:49 +0000

I hope you cover the whole state. Lately schools in northern Maine dont get coverage form Augusta all the money goes to th southern part of Maine, we do have schools and people in central and northern Maine also.
Same goes for our elderly the state does not seem to want to help with them. I hope you cover the whole state not just certain parts like ha happened in the past. People say we have to be careful because you are from down that way. I hope you will have he chance to prove them wrong and help the whole state.