AUBURN — A quartet of Democratic candidates in Androscoggin County went on the offensive this week, charging their Republican rivals with diverting state money from public schools and using legislation to filter it to private religious schools.

Candidates Colleen Quint, John Cleveland, Wayne Werts and Larry Sirois said Thursday at a news conference that they had a different plan.

Quint is running for state Senate against incumbent Sen. Garrett Mason, R-Lisbon Falls. Cleveland is challenging incumbent Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello, R-Mechanic Falls. Werts and Sirois are seeking election to the state House of Representatives’ seats held by Rep. Jeff Timberlake, R-Turner, and Rep. Bruce Bickford, R-Auburn.

The Democrats said Mason, Snowe-Mello, Timberlake and Bickford supported bills that pushed more state money to religious schools, cut funding for Head Start and supported virtual charter schools.

Quint defended public schoolteachers, whom Democrats claim have been under attack by Republican Gov. Paul LePage and the Republican majority in the Legislature. Quint said her mother was a kindergarten teacher who paid for supplies for students on her own and her father was an English teacher.

“Providing Maine students with a good education isn’t just a nice thing to do; it is in our own best interest,” Quint said.

Werts, the former fire chief in Auburn, said cutting funds to public schools would not only hurt students but would hurt the economy as well.

Werts cited a shortage of on-the-job and job-training programs for young Mainers. He told the story of one young man who couldn’t find a job, even after being trained as a machinist, for lack of real-world experience.

He charged Republicans with ignoring that aspect of public education. 

“Instead, they were leaving that hardworking young man and many others like him behind, by focusing on weakening our public education system and attacking teachers,” Werts said.

Cleveland, a former Auburn mayor, said he worked hand in hand with stakeholders to create the University of Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College “because I know what it’s like to work your way through college and travel long hours to get to class.”

Ben Grant, chairman of the Maine Democratic Party, said the party’s candidates were committed to strong public schools. 

“They are ready to work hard, fighting to move our public education system forward so it meets the demand of the changing economy,” Grant said.

Republican response

Mason said Friday the Democrats failed to recognize on important point — that the Republican majority in Augusta provided $65 million more to public schools in 2012 than in 2011.

“So we actually increased funding for our public schools,” Mason said. “And we didn’t make any cuts to higher education.” 

He said the practice of allowing state funds to go to religious schools is long-standing and protected in the state’s constitution.

“The Democrats, for some reason, aren’t very familiar with our constitution,” Mason said. “This is not a new thing. (It’s) something that had been going on for a long time until the Democrats decided to restrict school choice to our kids in the 1980s.”

As to the Head Start cuts, Mason said Maine was one of only a handful of states that chooses to supplement the federally funded program. Even with the reductions made in 2012, Maine still helps fund Head Start.

Mason said he and other Republicans wanted that money to be used for public school programs and not for programs already receiving federal funding.

He noted that some cities have early-eduction programs in their public schools and Head Start was competing with those programs. “We would much rather see that money going to our local schools.”

He said virtual charter schools are the future of education and a way to serve students in rural areas.

“If Maine people are interested in rolling that back and don’t want to offer those awesome solutions to rural places, I would suggest they vote for Democrats,” Mason said. “Otherwise, I think Maine people will like what this Republican Legislature has done for public education.”

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