 Maine Students Are In a Race to the Bottom
A 71% increase in education spending has not reversed a sharp decline in academic performance.
This is Sheila Lyman of Livermore Falls with the Weekly Republican Address.
Maine continues to get national attention for all the wrong reasons.
Just last week, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released its’ results for 2024.
NAEP measures the reading and mathematics proficiency of 4th grade and 8th grade students in American public schools.
It is one of a handful of nationwide standardized tests that can be used by policy makers to evaluate the effectiveness of state public education systems.
Maine was once a national leader in educating children.
Now Maine is a national leader in proving that higher spending does not result in improved academic performance.
Since 2013, Maine spent 71% more per pupil, a total of $26,000 per student.
After increased spending,
- Maine had the biggest drop in reading and math proficiency in the country, falling 10 percentage points since 2019.
- Just 33% of Maine fourth graders are proficient in math.
- Only 26% of those fourth graders were proficient in reading.
- Only 25% of eighth graders were proficient in math and 26% in reading.
Before the pandemic, Maine’s reading and math scores were higher than the national average.
Maine’s current education system is failing our kids.
To begin to fix the problem, we need to start at the top.
When the Biden and Mills administrations pushed a political agenda, then put money behind it and attached strings, school districts had little choice but to comply.
Many Maine teachers do not want to teach sex or politics, especially when it is not age appropriate.
Teachers want to teach students the skills they need to succeed in life as productive, contributing citizens.
That means focusing on reading, writing and arithmetic.
Maine’s Commissioner of Education made national news when she told lawmakers that traditional academic learning — reading, writing, and math — should be a lower priority than social-emotional learning and programming on race and gender.
That sent the wrong signal to school districts.
Within days of taking office, the Trump Administration acted swiftly to address the problem.
Several House Republicans called on the Maine Department of Education to comply with new federal guidelines from the Trump Administration designed to protect children, writing:
“We strongly support these important steps to protect our children, preserve fairness, maintain the integrity of sex-based distinctions, and renew the focus on education and not indoctrination,” the release said. “These Executive Orders are crucial in ensuring that the well-being of our children is safeguarded from policies that seek to divide, sow discontent, and contradict biological reality.”
We hope that the Commissioner and Department will rethink its’ initial response to that executive order and join the American people in calling for a renewed focus on teaching our children the basics.
Maine has proven that more money will not solve the problem.
We need true leadership at the top that empowers Maine teachers to focus on academic results.
This has been Representative Sheila Lyman with the Weekly Republican Radio Address.
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Representative Sheila Lyman
of Livermore Falls is currently serving her third term representing House District 76, which includes the towns of Livermore Falls, Jay, and part of Livermore. Rep. Lyman serves as the Ranking Member on the 132nd Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs.
Rep. Lyman graduated from nearby Leavitt Area High School. She earned her education degree from the University of Maine at Farmington and worked her entire career as an elementary school teacher. She dedicated 36 years of her life to students at the same school. During her career she served as a chairperson and leader for district grade level work and curriculum and assessment development at both the local and state levels. She served as a voice for educational change while presenting at a variety of schools around the state and country. In those years of service, she provided her students with educational experiences that laid the foundation for their journey into becoming a responsible citizen for their community.
She knows the importance of asking the hard questions that get to the root of a situation. She is not afraid to be the lone voice in the crowd. When facing opposing and differing opinions, she has worked to find a common ground in order to create an effective plan. She believes her experiences with educational politics have developed her ability to represent the citizens of District 76 in the Legislature.
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