By Sen. James Libby

As a legislator, college professor and former high school math teacher, I’m very concerned about Maine’s K-12 schools. A recent report that ranks state education systems across the country has raised alarm bells for me and many others about Maine’s failing students; and it is a problem that should concern every parent in Maine.

Hello, this is Senator Jim Libby of Cumberland County. I also represent parts of the great counties of Oxford and York. I thank you for joining me for this week’s Republican Radio Address.

The annual report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation called the Kids Count Data Book ranks all 50 states on “the overall well-being of children.” Those rankings included categories in which Maine scored reasonably well. We ranked 16th for economic well-being and 6th when it comes to family and community.

However, the academic performance of Maine’s schoolchildren has dropped dramatically to the bottom 10 states in the nation by nearly all accounts. When measuring the reading skills of Maine’s fourth graders, 74% are not proficient in that category. For eighth graders, 75% are not proficient in math. That is alarming.

When it comes to neighboring New England states, Maine seems to have disconnected and is now an island of its own. Massachusetts is ranked first in the nation while New Hampshire is fourth. Connecticut and Vermont are also near the top. And then there’s Maine bringing up the rear.

The report is based on data from the Nation’s Report Card, which uses the National Assessment for Educational Progress, or NEAP testing in each state. It comes on the heels of another study issued by U.S. News and World Report that ranked Maine’s schools dead last in the nation. Sadly, our state educational policies and the Democratic administration executing them are to blame for our new worst in the nation ranking.

Ironically, when Maine fourth graders began testing under NEAP in 1992, Maine ranked first in the nation for math and second in reading. When eighth graders began taking the national test in 1998, they came in first.

How did we fall so far from the top? Maine’s education system has undergone a series of changes over decades. It began with the Maine Education Reform Act in 1984 that implemented standardized testing through the Maine Education Assessment, or MEA.

During my first term in the Senate in 1996, we passed the Maine Learning Results that expanded standards for eight content areas. For some time, those standards were measured using the MEA along with the New England Common Assessment Program when Maine joined the multi-state coalition in response to the Bush-era “No Child Left Behind Act.”

Those standards were updated in 2011 to include the Common Core initiative, which included college and career readiness standards. Since then, Maine adopted a comprehensive assessment system that incorporated the Maine Learning Results, Maine Education Assessment test and national assessments like NEAP under the “Every Student Succeeds Act,” the successor Obama-era legislation to “No Child Left Behind.”

But then enter the Mills Administration in 2019, which moved away from those standards in pursuit of ideological goals such as social-emotional learning. That ideological shift away from academic learning began a period of accelerated declines in test scores.

The genie was out of the bottle and Maine’s Commissioner of Education Pender Makin confirmed as much when she admitted before my Education and Cultural Affairs Committee in 2023 that social-emotional learning and programming were her department’s primary focus. To quote her specifically, “Academic learning is definitely going to take a backseat to all of these other pieces,” she said.

Her exact words told us that reading, writing and math were no longer as important in Maine’s schools. To make matters worse, her department did not require standardized testing after the pandemic, which threatened federal education funding under the Biden Administration. Then along came a movement to expand private and confidential counseling of students without parental consent.

Let’s learn a lesson or two from our neighboring states that continue to outscore Maine’s children in basic academic skills. While our education system is faring worse, other state systems have gotten better. And if you didn’t know, Maine already has the lowest high school graduation standard for mathematics in the nation. My bill to improve that standard, LD 370, was turned into a study.

The bottom line is we need to move back to standards-based learning in the core areas that will make our students competitive. We need to incorporate AI standards and curricula for our students to ready them for a workforce that is already adopting it. New England states like Connecticut have already passed significant A.I. in education programs.

We also need more options for parents to send their children to successful schools instead of locking them into failing ones depending on where they live. Only then will we have true accountability in education and allow us to silence the alarm bells ringing all around us.

Again, this is Senator Jim Libby of Standish. Thanks for listening; and I hope you have a great weekend!

Senator James Libby represents the communities of District 22. He is the Senate Republican Lead for the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee.