To the editor:
Have you ever wondered why our schools seem to always become the targets for cutting costs to balance the state budget? The educational department at the state level has been spending schools’ money left and right for years. Then there isn’t enough left for the students’ education. Do you remember hearing about the Common Core decades ago? The state spent millions on a program that was never implemented. Student money was wasted on teacher workshops, speakers that went around the state selling the ill-fated program, and padded the pockets of the “experts” who pushed everyone to join in on the farce.
Then they did the same thing with the Learning Results. I wonder how many millions of dollars were used to test students to death? Teachers’ time was taken up with testing students at the national, state and district levels which was the equivalent of nine weeks of school. Once again, teachers were required to attend many workshops that didn’t pertain to bettering educational needs.
Then along came the national nightmare, “No Child Left behind”, which actually left educators and students behind. Test scores dropped in nearly every state because teachers had no time to teach. They were testing students continuously. Just ask a teacher if they would rather teach students in the classroom rather than attending workshops that don’t pertain to student learning.
Now our state’s educational department has decided to use even more of our tax dollars to bully every town or city into the consolidation game. It’s their rules or be fined huge amounts of money. Are these fines the way they plan to pay the state back for all the millions they’ve soaked out of the educational state funds?
Some districts have been consolidating expenditures for years, thus saving money for their taxpayers. Some areas are realizing that joining forces and spreading themselves thin isn’t keeping costs down at all. Yet the state is bullying them into this wasteful scheme.
Well, fellow taxpayers, I think it’s up to us to stop this ridiculous spending of this department. There are towns in our state which are going to see 25 percent and higher increased taxes. Do these bullies care? Does any bully care about their victims? No!
So now the plan is to take more funds from the schools. How about cutting out the wasteful spending in Augusta? How about getting rid of these “professionals” who haven’t darkened a classroom since they were students? How about cutting costs of the consultants that don’t have a clue about elementary, middle or high school concerns? How about cutting costs of trips all over the world and nation that have proven over and over that these new bandwagons are driving us over a cliff? I’m sure there are many more expenses that we have been covering by our tax dollars.
Schools have put up with these bullies long enough. It’s time for us to take action. Let’s take our school back! Let’s let the teachers actually teach so students can learn. Let’s allow Maine to lead our country in education once again.
Now, if we did something like this to every department in the state we could really cut our taxes.
retired educator
Fairfield
