AUGUSTA — Lawmakers on Thursday heard emotional testimony from parents, students and teachers supporting and opposing two of Gov. Paul LePage’s more contentious education proposals.

The bills are two of four initiatives that the administration contends will enhance student opportunity. However, both are rife with controversy. One, some argued Thursday, is unconstitutional. 

The latter is a bill that would divert public dollars to private and religious schools. Opponents say the bill violates the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause. Supporters say diverting public funds is constitutional as long as the government doesn’t favor religious schools over public schools, or one faith over another.

State Department of Education Commissioner Steve Bowen said a court decision in Ohio backed the administration’s position that the bill was legal. However, committee members and others challenged that assertion by citing several court decisions striking down the diversion of public funding for private and religious schools. 

Susan Campbell, with the Maine School Board Association, opposed the bill. She said there was no reason to engage in a debate that had been settled long ago. 

“Reopening this debate serves little purpose but to divert our attention from the problem of insufficient funding for public schools,” Campbell said. 

Several parents testified in favor of the proposal. Several delivered emotional remarks saying that diverting public funding to private and religious schools would give their children a better chance at a quality education. 

Opponents such as Campbell said parents already had the opportunity to send their children to a school other than their local public institution.  

John Kosinski, with the Maine Education Association, said the bill and partner legislation enabling additional school choice options, threatened to drain resources from public schools. 

Additionally, Kosinski said, forcing districts to divert funds to private and religious schools may do little to help poor or working class students. Kosinski cited the tuition cost at Cheverus High School in Portland, which is $15,000. Even if a school district paid a third of that cost, he said, low-income parents may still not be able to afford to send their children to a private school. 

Jennifer Murray supported the governor’s school choice bill. Murray, from East Millinocket, gave tearful testimony when she talked about having to pull her daughter from the public school because she had been bullied by her teacher.

Murray said that a school shouldn’t be guaranteed every student in their respective district if the school isn’t meeting every student’s needs.

“School choice would force schools to compete and those that can’t would close,” Murray wrote in her prepared remarks. “This is not a bad thing.”

Others agreed, saying that expanding school choice would force public schools to become more innovative and compete for students.

Opponents countered that the two bills focused on the wrong issue: inadequate funding for public schools. They said the bills would shutter rural schools and siphon critical dollars from other public institutions.

Nash Roy, a student at Hermon High School, opposed the choice bill. Roy said that instead of allowing kids to pick the school they want to attend, lawmakers should focus on making public schools better. That, he said, would mean adequately funding public schools.

Critics of the bills have also accused the administration of essentially cutting and pasting the legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate funded organization that drafts model legislation. 

The bills are supported by StudentsFirst, a nonprofit organization founded by former D.C. chancellor of public schools Michelle Rhee. According to lobbying records, StudentsFirst has dispatched two lobbyists to advocate for the bills. 

The LePage administration has dubbed its education initiative “Students First.”

Meanwhile, unions representing teachers, superintendents and school boards are lining up to oppose the proposals. The bills are also opposed by the Maine Municipal Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. 

LePage and Education Commissioner Steve Bowen have acknowledged that the proposals represent significant changes in the state’s education system. 

“We want to allow families to have a say in what the best educational fit is for their children,” Bowen said last month.

The bills will undergo work sessions and committee votes next week.

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