Area educators

are divided on

the proposal.
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer

Maine’s education commissioner will ask the Legislature to postpone the earliest Learning Results requirements for one year.

Department of Education officials believe the state needs to increase education funding before it can make demands on school systems.

“There’s a gap there. That gap has to be addressed,” said Greg Scott, legislative coordinator for the Maine Department of Education.

Established in 1997, Learning Results set standards for what students should know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high schools. It is being implemented in stages, with requirements staggered between 2001 and 2011.

As the law stands now, this year’s freshmen would be the first required to meet demanding English and math standards in order to graduate. If the commissioner’s delay is approved, this year’s eighth-graders would be the first.

School systems are also required to develop local assessments by the end of this school year. The commissioner’s delay would give them another year.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said she will recommend the change to the Legislature’s Education Committee.

In a letter sent to superintendents earlier this week, Gendron said a new state law requires that Maine pay 50 percent of education costs so that all school systems have the resources to deal with Learning Results.

But Maine currently pays only about 44 percent and won’t reach 49 percent until 2007-08 under the governor’s budget plan.

A Maine Municipal Association proposal would increase education funding to 55 percent as early as 2005, but that proposal won’t go to voters until November.

And with all school systems struggling to handle financial problems and federal regulations, Gendron said, school systems need more time and more money to deal with Learning Results.

It’s a delay that many in education like.

Tom Morrill, assistant superintendent in Auburn, called the commissioner’s recommendation “noble.”

“There are increased expectations. There needs to be support commensurate with that,” he said.

Auburn is two years ahead of schedule on its graduation requirements and will likely be able to meet this year’s deadline for local assessments, he said. But it would be nice to have some extra time.

“It gives us the flexibility that we may be able to go a little slower,” he said.

In Lewiston, Superintendent Leon Levesque said his school system is also on target. Most of his elementary English and math standards are done. The high school is working on its plan.

“Right now we’re proceeding full speed ahead,” he said.

If the commissioner gets her delay, he said, Lewiston will not slow its work.

Still, he said, “It would give us some time to refine.”

But not everyone was pleased with Gendron’s idea.

“We’re sick and tired of the delays. Let’s move this forward and get this going,” said William Shuttleworth, superintendent of SAD 39 in Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner.

He agreed that the state needs to give schools more money before it can expect them to meet standards. But he would like to see the state give 50 percent now rather than put off the Learning Results.

“It’s time for them to step up to the plate and pay for it,” he said.

Shuttleworth said that his school system would be able to meet the Learning Results deadlines, but it had to spend about $200,000 to do it.

Gendron is expected to make her formal recommendation to the Education Committee soon. It would have to be approved by the full Legislature before it could become a reality.

State Sen. Peggy Rotundo, a Lewiston Democrat and former Lewiston School Committee chairwoman, said she would seriously consider Gendron’s recommendation.

“She’s not trying to compromise those standards but trying to be realistic,” Rotundo said.

ltice@sunjournal.com

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