Public education is in trouble, profoundly in Maine. The decline in performance nationally and in Maine is arresting, an SOS flare, a call for major reform. It is time.  

Nationally, we lag in the 2025 global rankings. The top nine countries are South Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Japan, Germany, Finland, and Ireland. The U.S. now ranks 31st of 78. That is devastating but correctable, and President Trump is on it.  

Closer to home, Maine schools are in decline, and the impact is felt everywhere. The National Center for Educational Statistics is projecting continued declines in enrollment and outcomes after Maine. We are now near the bottom, in their book.

Last year, the U.S. News & World Report put Maine “dead last,” 50 out of 50, for education. Reasons are many, worth exploring, and solutions.

Only 1.9 percent of Maine’s public schools were in the top quarter by assessment of “Kids Count Data Book.” Maine was assessed at 34th in the country. That survey indicated 71 percent of Maine’s 4th graders cannot read at or read to level.

Think on that. A child who cannot read is forever handicapped, made to fail. Not entrepreneurship, no job at Bath Iron Works, handicapped. We owe them more.

Another analysis by the Maine Policy Institute tracked Maine’s slide from top in the country for our public schools in 1992 to bottom in reading, grades both 4 and 8, and math scores not far behind.

Causes are poor incentives for improving outcomes, low teacher pay, low teacher morale, deemphasis on priority topics, including math, reading, science, history, languages, instead favoring irrelevant subjects, reduced requirements to placate unions, measuring success by money not outcomes, prioritizing political activism, DEI, CRT, waiving homework, focus on social experimentation, things like gender change and political distraction. That is a fail.

There is more. “Core curriculum,” initiated with “No Child Left Behind” under Bush, has turned into a disaster. Federal mandates miss local needs, produce bureaucracy, and take away teacher freedom.

In Maine, we have other problems. Kids need to be cared for, from those in Foster Care to those with not have enough to eat. If facing abuse, hunger, cannot concentrate, feeling uncared for, with teachers afraid to violate regulations, how do we give kids the chance to succeed we got?

As in other areas, we see miscarriage after miscarriage. We could admire the problem forever, so much opportunity lost. Reality check: We can fix this. Kids in K-12 get one childhood, and up to us with our vigorous guidance to make it work for them. Their lives and futures – depend upon it.

We HAVE TO fix Maine schools, from restoring motivation and life skills like Industrial Arts (IA or shop, making future welders, mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, those good with hands) to restoring reading, writing, math, language, history for life and civic service – that is on us, now.

Other solutions include a governor and head of state education who care enough to be in ALL the high schools, part of the solution, inspiring, enabling proficiency, encouraging kids to reach high, work hard, and aspire.

We need to reward top schools and teachers, and kids. Every day should begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, freedom to learn, expectation that kids will learn, not be on cell phones, not indulge in social eccentricities or misbehaving, not allowed to be wild, but taught what counts.

We do not need more mandates, any more than a field commander in the military needs to be told by HQ how to do his job. The mission is clear, empowerment is needed, and outcomes are key.

We do not need unions holding court, their top eight staff in Maine over $200,000 per, riding high on money taken from teachers, while teachers start at $40,000, barely get by. With the money that those union staff make, we could buy teachers or elevate their salaries.

What else do we need? Freedom and options. Maine should make competitive schools; I was raised in an unaccredited one, which got me to a good college. We should adopt vouchers, school choice, allow parents to send kids to Christian schools, as the US Supreme Court directed– and homeschoolers should get $1000 per pupil or more, a far cry from per pupil statewide.

There is so much more, restarting rewards for teachers and students, civic-minded afterschool programs, incentivizing achievement, bringing back Junior Achievement, ties to 4-H, Scouting, patriotic undertakings. The sky is the limit, but to get there, we have to care.

Bottom line: Maine’s Democrat leaders for 30 of the last 32 years, Democrat-dominated legislature, cozy bureaucrats, administrators, and contractors, have ALL FAILED the kids of Maine. Failed. They get an F. They do not care, and unions have not bothered to change.

Mainers know we are in deep water. Excellent work has been done by groups like Dirigo Public Affairs and the Maine Policy Institute. We need to saddle up and ride, save our kids, not duck, run, or hide. Their futures depend on us, as they do nationally. It is time. And it is on us.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).