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Maine receives another admonishment from feds
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Maine’s education officials recently found themselves in the position of having to return to the federal government $1.5 million for improper reporting practices related to the state’s migrant population.
Once a definitive leader in education, Maine's latest actions have now put the state in the position of being ineligible for a portion of the $4.4 billion education innovation fund that's part of the federal economic stimulus package.
Those were the words of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and they came in response to the state’s failure to pass charter school legislation. The House had voted in favor of a revamped measure but for the second time the Senate voted in opposition, killing the bill for the 2009 legislative session.
Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, insisted that the vote in opposition to the charter options was a vote of confidence in Maine public schools. Such support has been well-received by Maine’s educational community and those with concerns that the federal government is interceding in what has traditionally been primarily a state function.
However, Maine’s position contrasts vividly with the Obama administration’s push to increase the opportunity for school choice.
To his credit, Duncan did acknowledge that educational innovation could occur outside of charter schools yet held fast on the position that such schools would enhance innovation in the long run. But the secretary was absolutely firm on the notion that Maine’s action would put them at a competitive disadvantage when pursuing the discretionary stimulus money Duncan oversees.
Both Governor Baldacci and Mane’s Commissioner of Education supported the adoption of charter school legislation.
Flickr photo courtesy of House Committee on Education and Labor.
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