Cutler is best choice for schools
To the editor:
Of all the candidates in this year’s race for governor, Eliot Cutler is the best choice for the future of education in Maine. The Education Equality Project (EEP) and Education Reform Now (ERN) recently released a report grading candidates’ education plans. Cutler was the only one to receive an A while Paul LePage and Libby Mitchell both received F’s. This is primarily because Eliot is the only candidate offering real, structural reform in a system that badly needs it.
Maine is one of the top five states in per-pupil spending. Yet over half of our elementary school students fail to meet national standards in reading and math, our graduation rates hover around 80 percent, and our teachers are some of the worst paid in the nation, ranking 43rd. Additionally, within eight years, nearly 60 percent of Maine jobs will require formal education beyond high school, yet currently only about a third of our high school graduates go on to earn a college degree.
Cutler values local culture and preserving schools as thriving centers connected to the communities they serve. He will allow for more local input than was experienced during the Baldacci days of school consolidation. He is proposing opening charter schools, as Maine is one of the few states that doesn’t have them, rewarding the best educators for good performance, and increasing collaboration with the University and Community College systems. Cutler has proposed opening magnet schools, like the Maine School of Science and Math in Limestone, near UMFK and UMPI and encouraging collaboration so students have more meaningful classroom activities and experience the excitement of higher education at a young age.
As a graduate of an Aroostook County high school with family members that are teachers, I believe that Eliot Cutler is by far the best candidate to move our educational systems forward.
Scarborough
