We need accessible, affordable, and effective education

We need to give kids the tools they need to succeed
  • Our schools are part of the very foundation of our community, helping us to create the next educated citizens who will lead us into the future. We need to make sure schools have the resources they need to support teachers as they work to educate kids who are faced with the challenges of the Digital Age, with addictive phones in their pockets and more demands on their attention than ever before.
  • Especially with the rise of artificial intelligence, I believe strongly that kids still need to be able to navigate the world in analog fashion, to do math, read, know their history, and be able to solve problems independent of the internet and computer aids. They need to be able to figure out what's true!
  • Kids need the arts, music, humanities, and creativity to help them understand what it is to be human and why it matters in an age that's pushing ever more technology into their hands. 
  • However, local property taxes are not a sustainable way to pay for education. They can only be one piece of the funding formula. We have to increase the amount the state pays and keep taxes tied to housing manageable. No one should have to choose between remaining in their home and supporting education. This false choice is fracturing communities and we need to look to the state and federal levels for help. 
  • Local control is an important tradition in Maine and we should resist urges by the state to mandate what is taught in local schools. I support efforts like the Maine Learning Results that focus on outcomes and not methods, on skills that our kids should have and knowledge they should possess, rather than focus on specific learning materials or methodology. Every community has different needs and the people in the schools know their kids best. 
  • If the state wants to mandate specific topics be addressed, the state should provide funding to create local curriculum for that topic. 
  • If the state wants to increase minimum teacher salaries or ed tech salaries, the state should increase the funding to make up for that mandate.
  • We should use data and on-the-ground information to make decisions about the future of education, not ideology and wishcasting. 
  • Free community college is a no-brainer, is incredibly popular and got a ton of kids to try college who wouldn't have, and is a virtual necessity as we prepare for a wave of retirements by older mechanics, HVAC experts, electricians, and other tradespeople. I was very disappointed the funding for it was allowed to expire, and then thrilled that it was restored in the last legislative session. It also helps create teachers, social workers, ed techs, and all the other positions we desperately need on the municipal level.
  • I would pledge to support funding free community college in perpetuity and I would work to get more funding to the full university system so every kid in Maine who wants a college degree can afford to get one. The UMaine system should be a bright and shining beacon offering our kids a sustainable path toward the future they envision for themselves, however they'd like to get there. 
  • We also need some kind of public childcare system that reigns in the costs of childcare and allows families room to breathe. Young people can't afford to have families right now and that is not sustainable for Maine's future.