LePage focuses campaign message, attacks on education
SCARBOROUGH (WGME) – Republican nominee and former Governor Paul LePage blasted Governor Janet Mills Monday, blaming her administration for falling test scores and rising absenteeism in the pandemic.
He also outlined what he calls an ambitious agenda to put parents and students first in education, including new after school programs to help parents get back to work and starting vocational and technical education as early as middle school.
The plan also includes a "Parents Bill of Rights," designed to create more transparency in what kids are learning and give parents more say.
"Parents must be notified of all sensitive material with a parental opt-out option,” LePage said. “Our curriculums need to focus on teaching our children how to think, not what to think."
Similar plans are being rolled out by Republicans around the country as a way to reign in what conservatives feel is too much ideology being injected into public education, especially involving issues of race and gender equality.
Maine Democrats claim the LePage administration was a disaster on education and "declared war" on the legislature's education committee.
They also claim LePage is following a national conservative playbook, blaming teachers, school administrators, transgender children and banning sex education.
In fact, more than a dozen red states have already passed laws restricting education involving the LGBTQ community.
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry, who served on the education committee for eight years, claims it won't work.
“It does feel like a dog whistle, trying to bring national politics here,” Daughtry said. “Mainers have said loud and clear that's not what we are interested in. We are about Maine-based solutions, not something that comes from a national playbook or outside group.”
She says it takes a bipartisan focus in the legislature to make Maine schools work for students and parents.