Ruth of Oakland, ME Barbara, you are completely correct. Our children should be held accountable by their successes in the classroom. Our teachers are currently being held accountable by the assessment test, and those test mean nothing and inhibit the real education that should be taking place in the classroom. Let our trained teachers teach - politicians barely excel in politics - leave them out of the education equation.report abuse

LewistonT of Lewiston, ME Time to get rid of the Union and the dead weight and get Administrators and Teachers to get paid on Merit....Better yet bring in Charter schools and let the parents decide where they want to send their child to school.report abuse

TheCynic of Central, ME And Barbara of Madison...

Take the politics out of education? And do what? Leave it in the hands of the teachers unions? LOL!

And consolidation is a great idea as a way to reduce costs and bureaucracy, but not with the ham-handed ideas from the State level. The State should encourage school districts explore what works best for them.report abuse

TheCynic of Central, ME "One student's essay began: 'These facts are lies.'"

This student deserved to fail the exam. A fact cannot, by definition, be a lie and vice versa.

And, Ruth of Oakland, regardless of what is taught, there must be some method of evaluating whether or not the kids actually learn it. If the testing method determines that the kids HAVE NOT learned what is taught, there is still a problem, regardless of whether or not you agree with the curriculum. Yes, the teacher''s first thought is for themselves, so they're going to "teach to the test" as poor test results may indicate a problem with the teacher and not the kids.report abuse