The Portland Press Herald reports that Eliot Cutler outlined a series of education reforms in a speech to the Waterville Rotary Club yesterday. Cutler’s proposals include charter schools, a longer school year, rewarding teacher performance and merging the university and community college systems. You can read an excerpt below:
Independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler said Monday he would improve education in Maine by lengthening the school year, allowing charter schools, tying teacher pay to student performance and merging the university and community college systems.
Cutler said Maine can no longer afford to have underperforming students.
“We need to reform education in Maine from top to bottom,” he told a Waterville Rotary Club audience.
He said test scores, dropout rates and the state’s poor performance in the federal Race to the Top competition — Maine finished 33rd out of 36 states that applied — highlight the need for major reform.
Part of his plan is to provide services to children before they enter school. He praised Waterville for its new Educare Central Maine facility that focuses on early childhood development and said more of those types of programs are needed across the state.
You can read the full article here.