Education

RELEASE: Cutler Says Maine’s Failure to Qualify for ‘Race to the Top’ Education Funding is Failure of Leadership

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

PORTLAND, Maine – Independent candidate for governor Eliot Cutler today said that Maine’s failure to qualify for federal Race to the Top funding shows again how partisan politics is standing in the way of meaningful education reform in Maine.

“My opponents are squabbling over personal attacks, while the political parties have once again left the State of Maine, its teachers and its children by the side of the road,” said Cutler. “Paul LePage is making inappropriate comments about Libby Mitchell’s age, when we should be focused on how she used her power in the Maine Senate to block charter schools and other reforms that would have put Maine in a position to receive millions of dollars in Race to the Top funding. This is what Maine people can expect from the political parties in this campaign – more petty bickering while real issues like improving the education of our children go unchallenged.”

Last March, Cutler wrote to the chairs of the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee urging them to defeat LD 1810, An Act to Promote the Establishment of Innovative Schools. The law, which ultimately passed, “doesn’t respond to the Race to the Top challenge, doesn’t make possible innovative and autonomous schools and doesn’t promote reform,” Cutler said in his letter.

At the time he also strongly criticized Democratic leadership in the Legislature and the Baldacci Administration for bowing to the teachers union and defeating legislation that would have allowed charter schools in Maine. “By not authorizing charter schools, Maine stands to lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars under President Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ education initiative,” he warned.

Cutler, who has made education reform a major platform of his campaign, has repeatedly noted that Maine has one of the most expensive public school systems in the nation and that too few young people are graduating from high school prepared for either college or skilled employment.

“Paul LePage is struggling to defend teaching creationism in schools, Libby Mitchell continues to do the bidding of the teachers union in blocking reforms, and, as many of us predicted, Maine has now been shut out of funding from the most important education initiative in a generation,” Cutler said. “What a sad commentary on the current state of political leadership in Maine.”

Cutler pledged that as governor he will make education reform, including charter schools and linking teacher pay to student achievement, a top priority. “I will be a governor with the courage and independence to put kids first, a governor who will be a champion for innovation, and a governor who understands that economic activity, jobs and incomes require an educated and skilled workforce.”

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OP-ED: Talk Centers on Teachers, not Students (Bangor Daily News)

Monday, July 5th, 2010

The following op-ed appeared in the Bangor Daily News on July 1st, 2010.

Libby Mitchell got the endorsement of the teachers’ union last week, and she should have. The union that represents teachers in Maine — the Maine Education Association — recently interviewed four candidates for governor. Since the room was full of teachers, you would have thought that the questions would be about improving education, preparing young people for the future, growing Maine’s economy, rewarding good teachers, stretching our education dollars and so forth. But you would have been wrong.

Throughout four pages and eight long questions, the word “student” appeared twice in just one question, and even then only in asking whether teacher evaluations should be based upon measures of student performance (of course they should, but the teachers’ union says no.) There was not another mention of students or any reference to parents, taxpayers or creating jobs.

Here is what the MEA wanted to talk about: raising taxes, protecting the union’s first-class health plan, easing working conditions, higher teacher salaries (regardless of competence and performance) and a tax exemption for retired teachers.

There was one other question: Would I support or oppose the establishment of charter schools in Maine? I strongly support charter schools, but the teachers’ union has used its clout to block them in Maine. We are just one of a handful of states that don’t allow public charter schools, and it is one of the principal reasons Maine schools have been denied a share of the hundreds of millions of dollars in the federal “Race to the Top” education reform program.

At a time when we need to be focused on growing the economic pie in Maine so that our kids will have a future here, the MEA’s only concern is how to grab for themselves an even bigger slice of a pie that already is much too small.

Without Libby Mitchell at the helm in Augusta for much of the last 30 years, the MEA never could have succeeded in driving the costs of public education in Maine higher and higher, blocking public charter schools, preserving tenure and lock step salary increases for teachers and sidetracking other needed public education reforms — all while student enrollments and performance have been falling.

So take the MEA endorsement of Ms. Mitchell with a grain of salt and a heavy dose of caution. The endorsement was paid for upfront by years of steadfast support from Ms. Mitchell for higher taxes, more spending and opposition to reform. Unfortunately, it is our children who will foot the bill.

I am convinced that the leadership of the teachers’ union does not reflect the views of thousands of dedicated, hardworking Maine teachers. More than anyone, our teachers have been marginalized and their professional status compromised by the failure of their own union leadership.

Teachers should have a prominent role in setting educational policy. But they don’t, because the MEA is more concerned about propping up a political party in decline.

Good teachers should be paid more than mediocre ones, as in other professions, and student achievement should be somehow reflected in compensation. Teachers should help design the system that rewards excellence with compensation and advancement. But the MEA wants to make sure that every teacher, regardless of effectiveness, is treated the same.

Good teachers should be free to innovate, and we should make more clinical and professional training available to help them do that. But the MEA wants to keep every teacher in the same narrow box.

I had hoped to be able to talk with the MEA about important issues like education reform, ensuring that every child — wherever they live in Maine — has access to a quality education, improving student performance and operating our schools more efficiently as enrollments decline.

Instead, the meeting turned out to be one more example of the kind of special interest politics that we simply can’t afford any longer.

So, if you like things the way they are and want to continue paying more and getting less, cast your lot with Libby Mitchell and the MEA. If you want change and reform, I hope that you will join me in creating an education system in Maine that is innovative, affordable and focused on results — a system that truly respects our teachers as professionals and gives every Maine child an equal opportunity to succeed.

Eliot Cutler is an independent candidate for governor. Learn more at www.Cutler2010.com.

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VIDEO INTERVIEW: Eliot and Derek Viger Discuss “The State of Education in Maine”

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Eliot Cutler, Independent candidate for Maine Governor, recently sat down with Derek Viger from Augusta Insider to discuss the State of Education in Maine. The complete conversation is listed below in 4 parts:

Tags: Augusta Insider, charter schools, Derek Viger, Interview, Maine Education Association, Property Tax, Race to the Top Funding, School Budgets, School Consolidation, Teachers, YouTube Comments Off

VIDEO(S): 4 Key Issues in Maine Education

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Eliot recently sat down for a talk with Derek Viger from Augusta Insider about the “State of Education in Maine.” Below are a 4 video clips in which he covers some of the key issues facing the Maine education system:

Tags: charter schools, College, College System, Higher Education, UMaine, USM Comments Off

Candidate Shares Plans for Lifelong Education (The Maine Campus)

Monday, March 29th, 2010

The Maine Campus, the UMaine student newspaper, published a full story that looks at Eliot’s plans to reform public education in Maine. Below is an excerpt from the story:

Eliot Cutler, an independent candidate in the 2010 Maine gubernatorial election, believes Maine’s current system of postsecondary education is destined to fail.

“We’re a state of 1.3 million people. We have 14 separate campuses — seven community college campuses and seven university campuses,” said Cutler, a Cape Elizabeth attorney, in a February telephone interview. “The [University of Maine] system and the community college system don’t communicate with each other.”

Cutler said the system is undermining itself because many community college credits are non-transferable within the University of Maine System. He said functions and programs in the two systems are being duplicated — a serious problem for a fiscally challenged state.

“We need to merge the systems. They ought to be under the same governing board; they should be under the same executive. They should be much more closely coordinated with [the] K-12 education system in Maine,” Cutler said.

You can read the complete article here.

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RELEASE: Cutler Calls for System-wide Approach to University of Maine Priorities and Program Cuts

Friday, March 26th, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MARCH 26, 2010
CONTACT: TED O’MEARA
207.699.4401
ted@cutler2010.com

CUTLER CALLS FOR SYSTEM-WIDE APPROACH TO UNIVERSITY OF MAINE PRIORITIES AND PROGRAM CUTS

PORTLAND, Maine – Independent candidate for Governor Eliot Cutler today praised University of Maine President Robert Kennedy and other university campus presidents for taking a hard look at budgets, programs and priorities. At the same, however, he questioned why such reviews are not being conducted on a coordinated, system-wide basis.

“Establishing priorities and making tough choices is absolutely the right thing, but it makes no sense to be doing this on a campus-by-campus basis,” Cutler said. “The entire university system should be doing this together. This is a prime example of why our entire education system in Maine has become so expensive and fragmented.”

Cutler was reacting to a recently announced proposal by the University of Maine to cut more than $12.2 million by eliminating faculty positions and reducing the number of majors and master’s degrees.

Cutler, who has made education reform a top priority in his campaign, served as chair of the board of visitors of the Muskie School of Public Service for ten years until stepping down last year. His late father, Dr. Lawrence Cutler of Bangor, was a longtime member and chair of the University Maine board of trustees.

“We are a state of just 1.3 million people with limited financial resources. We simply can’t afford for every campus to operate in its own silo,” Cutler said. “The University of Maine, as our land grant institution, has a special mission in our state, and each of the other campuses also have their strengths. Now is the time to take a comprehensive look at what we need, what we can afford, and which campus is best suited to offer particular programs.”

Cutler also has called for a merger of the university and community college systems into one system of higher education in which students can move seamlessly from the associate degree programs to a four–year degree to graduate studies.

“It’s time to organize higher education around the needs of students, taxpayers and 21st century employers,” said Cutler. “That is one of the best ways for us to stimulate economic activity and create jobs.”

Tags: Budget, UMaine Comments Off

VIDEO: Investing in Our Strengths

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Eliot spoke at the Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club about why Maine needs to focus on and invest in its competitive advantages. In this clip, Eliot talks specifically about Maine’s higher education and how we can re-structure it to deliver better results:

Tags: College, Higher Education, Rotary Club, Schools, UMaine, University, USM Comments Off

RELEASE: Independent Candidate For Governor Eliot Cutler Urges Defeat Of So-Called “Innovative” Schools Bill

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MARCH 4, 2010
CONTACT: TED O’MEARA
207.699.4401
ted@cutler2010.com

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR ELIOT CUTLER URGES DEFEAT OF SO-CALLED “INNOVATIVE” SCHOOLS BILL

PORTLAND, Maine – Independent candidate Eliot Cutler has sent a letter to the chairs of the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee urging them to defeat LD 1810, An Act To Promote the Establishment of Innovative Schools. The legislation is scheduled for a public hearing today.

“LD 1801 does absolutely nothing to promote innovation and autonomy in education,” Cutler said in his letter to Sen. Justin Alfond (D-Cumberland) and Rep. Patricia Sutherland, (D- Chapman). “In fact, this bill would promote the creation of schools that, while labeled “innovative,” in fact would be strapped in the same political and bureaucratic straightjacket that today stifles our existing public schools. Maine children, parents and taxpayers deserve much better than this.”

Cutler, who has made education reform a major focus of his campaign, said the legislation was introduced in an effort to increase Maine’s chances of receiving funds under President Obama’s Race to the Top education initiative. Race to the Top awards points for “innovative autonomous public schools,” but schools created under LD 1801 would be neither, he said.

“Slapping the ‘innovative’ label on LD 1801 is nothing more than window dressing,” Cutler said in his letter, in which he cited several areas where the legislation doesn’t measure up to Race to the Top standards:

LD 1801 schools would be required to meet virtually all existing statutory and regulatory requirements, ensuring that they will be bound up in the same red tape that too often diverts a school’s energy and resources away from educational excellence. It also means these schools won’t be able to reduce costs, one of the hallmark accomplishments of charter schools nationwide.

LD 1801 adopts the national teachers’ union policy on charter schools – which means that these schools will be subject to the same labor relations statutes and collective bargaining requirements as traditional schools.

LD 1801 would permit only local school boards to authorize these schools, denying parents the innovative and autonomous charter school options presented in most states by other sponsors, such as the State Board of Education, colleges and universities and local non-profit organizations.

LD 1801 schools could experiment with unconventional staffing and scheduling – but only so long as they don’t interfere with existing state laws. Schools would not be allowed to develop alternative compensation arrangements, such as basing teacher compensation on growth in student performance.

Cutler has called for a “No Excuses” policy of education reform that will put kids first, ensure that all Maine children receive a quality education, and champion innovation.

“The bill before your committee won’t do any of those things,” Cutler wrote the chairs. “It doesn’t respond to the Race to the Top challenge, doesn’t make possible innovative and autonomous schools and doesn’t promote reform. Sadly, LD 1801 simply proffers more of the same for Maine students and their parents . . . and for the state’s economic future.”

In closing, Cutler said that if the committee is unwilling to kill the legislation, at the very least it should change the title so that the Legislature doesn’t make empty promises to Maine citizens and our children.

Tags: charter schools, Innovation, MEA Comments Off

'No Excuses' Education Reform

Friday, February 12th, 2010

This blog post also appeared as an op-ed in the Times-Record on February 12th.

Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont received their report cards earlier this month from NECAPS, the new multi-state consortium that assesses the performance of our education systems. Maine finished third and last among our three neighbors in both reading and math for grades three through eight. “Maine’s performance is sound,” said a spokesman for the state Department of Education. “We’re where we hoped we’d be.”

Well, this isn’t where I want Maine to be, and I’ll bet that it’s not where most Maine voters want Maine to be — whether they are parents of school-age children or retirees worried about the future of Maine’s economy. Bluntly, we are failing our children, denying them the opportunity to reach their highest potential in an increasingly competitive world.

Maine needs to innovate, to hold educators accountable for student performance and to create a culture of expectations and achievement that gives every Maine kid a fair shot at success, wherever she or he lives in Maine. To do this, we need to make excellence, quality, performance and efficiency our touchstones.

The facts are as plain and harsh as the glare of a full moon on a clear winter night. Maine has one of the most expensive public school systems in the nation, yet too many young people are graduating from high school without being ready for either college or skilled employment. We are doing many things well, but there are twice as many lower performing and less efficient schools and school districts in Maine than there are higher performing and more efficient schools and districts.

It’s time to insist on reform and to get smarter about how we use our resources, so that we can eliminate this achievement gap and raise our statewide performance results.

While Maine’s public school enrollment has been steadily declining, across the state we have continued to build expensive new schools with excess capacity.

Our student-teacher ratio has become the second most favorable in the nation at 11.3:1 versus a national average of almost 16:1. If we increase our student-teacher ratio to 13.5:1 — the average of several rural states that are currently performing as well or better than Maine — we would save $155 million each year.**

We could invest some of those savings in reforms that will make a real difference to our kids:

Negotiate a statewide teachers’ contract that makes teaching and education leadership a true profession with advancement opportunities.
Increase teacher compensation. (Maine’s average teacher salary is about $9,000 less than the national average.)
Provide merit pay and performance bonuses for teachers that are linked to student growth and achievement. Eliminate the Maine law that creates a firewall between teacher evaluation and pupil performance.
Make vocational and technical education broadly available so that Maine will be ready to replace our aging skilled workforce and keep jobs here.
Increase the length of the school day and the school year in elementary and secondary schools. Maine’s school year is 175 days, while it’s 180 days in New Hampshire and 31 other states, and well over 200 days in China (where the school day is also about 30 percent longer).
Use existing facilities to create magnet high schools for foreign languages at University of Maine at Fort Kent, for agricultural sciences at University of Maine at Presque Isle, for marine sciences at University of Maine at Machias and for creative arts in Lewiston-Auburn.
Merge our two separate systems of higher education — the University of Maine system and our community colleges — and operate a fully integrated Pre-K to lifetime public education system.

Finally, let’s tear down the bureaucratic and political walls that protect mediocrity and keep out innovation. Let’s authorize charter schools and charter districts in Maine. Let’s take a fresh look at education by creating exciting new places of learning designed around the needs of students, their families and the community.

President Obama’s “Race to the Top” education initiative will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to states that qualify by authorizing charter schools and pursuing other reforms. Maine will lose out, because the Democratic leadership in the Legislature bowed to the teachers’ union and defeated the bill that would have allowed charter schools. Instead of joining the Race to the Top, we will continue to scrape along the bottom.

Maine’s system of public education needs strong leadership from the top, from the Blaine House.

We need a governor with the courage and independence to put kids first, a governor who won’t rest until all Maine children receive a quality education, a governor who will be a champion for innovation. Hardworking Maine taxpayers who want the best for their children need a governor who will end duplication, fragmentation and inefficiency. Maine needs a governor who understands that economic activity, jobs and incomes require an educated and skilled workforce.

We need a No Excuses policy of education reform. When I am governor, we will have it.

**Note as of 6/21/2010: The Maine Department of Education has just determined that the teacher data provided to the National Center for Education Statistics was incorrect and resulted in the US Department of Education miscalculating the student-teacher ratio. The corrected ratio is 11.3:1, not 9:1 as originally reported by the USDOE and the MDOE. Based on this revised information, Maine ranks second in the nation, immediately behind Vermont, in the fewest number of students per teacher for 2007-2008.

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RELEASE: Independent Candidate For Governor Eliot Cutler Calls For “No Excuses” Policy On Education Reform

Friday, February 12th, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 12, 2010
CONTACT: TED O’MEARA
207.699.4401
ted@cutler2010.com

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR ELIOT CUTLER CALLS FOR “NO EXCUSES” POLICY ON EDUCATION REFORM

PORTLAND, Maine – Independent candidate Eliot Cutler said today that as governor he will adopt a “No Excuses” policy on education reform. Cutler cited a report from NECAPS, a new multi-state consortium that assesses the performance of our education systems, which shows Maine finishing behind New Hampshire and Vermont in both Grades 3-8 reading and Grades 3-8 math as evidence that Maine schools are not making the grade.

“We are failing our children and denying them the opportunity to reach their highest potential in an increasingly competitive world,” Cutler said in a commentary published today in Brunswick’s The Times Record. “Maine needs to innovate, to hold educators accountable for student performance and to create a culture of expectations and achievement that gives every Maine kid a fair shot at success, wherever she or he lives in Maine.”

Cutler said that while Maine has one of the most expensive public school systems in the nation, too many young people are graduating from high school without being ready for either college or skilled employment. He noted that we are doing many things well, but that there are twice as many lower performing and less efficient schools and school districts in Maine than there are higher performing and more efficient schools and districts.

Cutler also pointed out that Maine’s student-teacher ratio has become the second most favorable in the nation at 11.3:1 versus a national average of almost 16:1. “If we increase our student-teacher ratio to 13.5:1 – the average of several rural states that are currently performing as well or better than Maine – we would save $155 million each year,” Cutler said. “We could invest some of those savings in reforms that will make a real difference to our kids.”**

As part of his “No Excuses” approach to education, Cutler has put forth the following reform proposals:

Negotiate a statewide teachers’ contract that makes teaching and education leadership a true profession with advancement opportunities.

Increase teacher compensation. (Maine’s average teacher salary is about $9,000 less than the national average.)

Provide merit pay and performance bonuses for teachers that are linked to student growth and achievement. Eliminate the Maine law that creates a firewall between teacher evaluation and pupil performance.

Provide pre-school for all 4 year-olds in Maine. Investing in early childhood education makes sense for both parents and kids.

Make vocational and technical education broadly available so that Maine will be ready to replace our aging skilled workforce and keep jobs here.

Increase the length of the school day and the school year in elementary and secondary schools. Maine’s school year is 175 days, while it’s 180 days in New Hampshire and 31 other states, and well over 200 days in China (where the school day is also about 30% longer).

Use existing facilities to create magnet high schools for foreign languages at UMFK, for agricultural sciences at UMPI, for marine sciences at UMM and for creative arts in Lewiston-Auburn.

Merge our two separate systems of higher education – the University of Maine system and our community colleges – and operate a fully integrated Pre-K to Lifetime public education system.

Lastly, Cutler renewed his call for charter schools in Maine. “Let’s tear down the bureaucratic and political walls that protect mediocrity and keep out innovation,” he said. “Let’s authorize charter schools and charter districts in Maine, and take a fresh look at education by creating exciting new places of learning designed around the needs of students, their families and the community.”

Cutler has strongly criticized Democratic leadership in the Legislature and the Baldacci Administration for bowing to the teachers union and defeating a bill that would have allowed charter schools in Maine. By not authorizing charter schools, Maine stands to lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars under President Obama’s “Race to the Top” education initiative.

“Instead of joining the Race to the Top, we continue to scrape along the bottom,” Cutler said. “Maine needs a governor with the courage and independence to put kids first, a governor who won’t rest until all Maine children receive a quality education, a governor who will be a champion for innovation, and a governor who understands that economic activity, jobs and incomes require an educated and skilled workforce. I am ready to be that governor.”

Tags: charter schools, Innovation, MEA, Public Schools, Schools Comments Off