I have been following the public debate about revising and strengthening Maine Learning Results, and I am troubled by some criticisms leveled at them.

We have had education standards in Maine for decades. The new revisions were developed several years ago by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and then adopted by our state in 2011.

The idea was simple: create standards of what our kids should know at different grade levels that will ensure they can go on to higher education and/or competently fill the jobs that our nation needs filled.

My daughter is entering her junior year at St. Dominic Academy, which already bases its curriculum and teaching on high standards. As a businessman I support the improved Maine Learning Results standards because we need all our children to have the skills and knowledge needed to compete in the 21st century global marketplace.

I trust that my daughter’s teachers will make sure that they achieve at that high level, graduate college and career ready, while also retaining the Catholic identity in their education that is important to our family. I have no concerns that high standards will do anything but enrich my child’s education because they don’t replace the Catholic schools’ responsibility to decide curriculum or how they learn.

We need to make sure that a high school diploma is a meaningful measure of our children’s knowledge and skills, whether they are in public or Catholic school.

Jim Pietkiewicz, Topsham