As Maine students head back to school, I want to wish them, their teachers, and their families a safe, successful, and rewarding school year.
And as we begin a new academic year, I hope the coming year also brings a new administration in Augusta committed to changing course and giving our teachers the support and educational leadership they need to help every Maine child succeed.
This is Representative Mike Lance of Paris with the Weekly Republican Address.
For years, Maine taxpayers have watched education spending and property taxes climb while student achievement has moved in the opposite direction.
Despite spending well above the national average per student, Maine’s academic performance has fallen dramatically from where it once stood.
The latest state assessment results offer a small measure of encouraging news. Maine students have made slight, steady progress in reading and mathematics over the past several years.
We should welcome that improvement.
But we also need to be honest about the much larger problem.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress — commonly called the Nation’s Report Card — shows just how far Maine has fallen.
In 1992, Maine 4th graders ranked #1 in math and #2 in reading.
In 2024, Maine 4th graders ranked #43 in math and #43 in reading.
That translated into only 33 percent of Maine fourth graders being proficient or better in math, and only 26 percent proficient or better in reading.
This represents a decades-long decline.
Yet Maine’s education leadership continues to caution against placing too much importance on standardized testing.
Commissioner of Education Pender Makin has emphasized that test scores are only one indicator of student success and has argued that standardized assessments cannot capture everything students learn in school.
Remember, Commissioner Makin once said:
“Traditional learning needs to take a back seat to social-emotional learning.”
That statement gets to the heart of the debate over Maine’s educational direction.
Social and emotional development certainly has a place in our schools. But reading, writing, mathematics and other core academic skills cannot take a back seat.
No single test can measure everything a child knows, every talent a student possesses or everything a good teacher accomplishes.
But standardized assessments remain one of the best objective tools we have to measure academic performance over time and compare Maine students with students elsewhere.
And those comparisons matter because Maine students will eventually compete with students from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and every other state for college opportunities, skilled trades, and jobs.
Research suggests these academic measurements have consequences far beyond the classroom.
A 2025 study from Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research found that increases in national math scores correlate with improved outcomes later in life, including higher earnings and educational attainment and lower rates of incarceration.
In other words, academic achievement matters long after a student leaves school.
Other states have demonstrated that improvement is possible.
Mississippi has attracted national attention for dramatic gains in student achievement after embracing evidence-based literacy instruction, literacy coaches, teacher training, and greater accountability.
Maine has finally begun acknowledging the problem as well.
Following widespread concern about Maine’s national assessment results, the Department of Education announced a “back to basics” effort in reading and mathematics last year.
That is a welcome step.
But Maine has a long way to go.
We need an education system that puts academic achievement back at the center of its mission.
We need to support teachers with proven instructional methods.
We need transparency and accountability for parents and taxpayers.
And instead of trying to minimize disappointing test results, we should use those results to identify problems and determine whether our solutions are actually working.
Maine parents and taxpayers are asking a very reasonable question:
Why are we continually being asked to pay more when our children are achieving less?
They want us to raise test scores — not taxes.
The next round of Nation’s Report Card results will provide another important measurement of Maine’s progress.
Hopefully, by then Maine will have new leadership in Augusta that recognizes the seriousness of this challenge and is prepared to restore a strong emphasis on reading, writing, mathematics, and the fundamental academic skills our children need to succeed.
Maine was once an educational leader.
We can be again.
As this new school year begins, let’s wish Maine’s teachers and students every success — and commit ourselves to giving them educational leadership focused on helping them achieve it.
Maine can and must do better.
Our children’s future depends on it.
This has been Representative Mike Lance with the Weekly Republican Address.
