Maine Association for Charter Schools
1018 Depot Street
Union, Maine 04862
207-785-3071
Working with Maine Governors
July 1, 2014 – Dr. Judith D. Jones
Introduction
Good Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, panel members and guests. It is a great privilege to be
here today and to support the incredible work that you all are doing on behalf of children.
In Maine, since 1995, charter school supporters have had to work with three different governors,
an Independent, a Democrat, and a Republican. It took persistence - 16 years - but we finally
accomplished our major goal in 2011, the passage of charter school enabling legislation.
We were unable to rest, however, as we faced another legislative challenge. Rules and
regulations needed to be crafted to implement the law in a bureaucratic process fraught with unintended
consequences and opportunities for mischief by opponents.
A third legislative challenge followed - a broadside of more than 25 bills aimed to change,
weaken or destroy Maine’s new charter school movement.
So advocacy remains a major task in Maine, and its difficulty depends in large part on the person
elected Governor.
Today, on the plus side, we have a strong charter law and a strong process – and when things get
tight, we trust them to keep things right. And we have strong people dedicated to the tasks put before
us: to create the best public charter schools possible.
Maine now has 5 charter schools, with excellent authorizer reports and waiting lists of students
wanting to enroll. A sixth, new, virtual charter school will open in September.
The Commission just began its 4th application cycle, with 3rd versions of its highly refined RFP
and application evaluation rubrics, with a special version for virtual charter schools. Last week 6 new
“Letters of Intent” were submitted to the Commission by groups planning to apply for a charter, so
Maine has momentum.
On the challenging side, entrenched defenders of the status quo have great power in Maine,
embedded in the educational, philanthropic, media and political systems, with confusion, fear, and
resistance their main reactions to meaningful, systemic educational reform.
Passing Maine’s Charter School Law
Maine educators learned of Minnesota’s charter school innovation in 1993, and began working to
bring it to Maine. Bills based on model language developed by Ted Kolderie of Minnesota were
debated in each legislative session from 1995 on.
In 2003, Maine’s Democratic governor asked the State Board of Education to study charter
schools. Its report recommended a “pilot” program similar to that of New Hampshire, which had
established a “pilot” program of 20 charter schools to be authorized by its Department of Education.
We reframed our legislation as a pilot program to increase its political chances, but attempts to pass it
were still unsuccessful over the next six years. Votes were bipartisan and often very close, sometimes
successful in one chamber or the other; but never in both.
Email: macs@mainecharterschools.org
Website: www.mainecharterschools.org
Maine Association for Charter Schools
We worked closely with Todd Ziebarth, Joe Nathan, Nelson Smith, and others to improve our
legislation each year. Todd was working on the National Alliance’s Model Bill to reflect lessons learned
in other states, and he shared drafts with us. Maine’s bill adopted much of the National Alliance’s model
bill language, with details tailored to the state’s educational and political environment.
Gubernatorial support for charter schools was a long time coming. Governor Angus King, an
Independent, proved closely aligned with the Democratic Party and our opponents. Democratic
Governor John Baldacci, who followed, seemed to support us initially, but bowed to opponents also.
The tipping point came in 2011 with the election of Republican Governor Paul LePage and a
Republican majority in the House and Senate. Legislative leadership passed to the Republicans, along
with the chairmanships of the joint standing committees, including the Education Committee.
Republicans were generally stronger supporters of school choice, including charter schools. With
Republicans in power and bipartisan support for charter schools in the Education Committee, the House
and the Senate passage of the enabling legislation seemed assured. Controversy mounted, however, and
it was the last hour of the last day of the session when the charter bill finally passed.
Maine’s new charter school law was the first to have been passed nationally in 8 years. As it was
based on the model law, it was recognized as exceptionally strong. However, a few compromises were
made to get it passed, the most significant being a reduced cap on the number of charter schools
authorized by the state charter school commission from 20 to 10 during the 10-year pilot phase. But the
core of the bill survived, and there was no cap on the number of charter schools that could be authorized
by school districts.
Working with Governors
Since Maine’s charter movement began, we’ve had Democratic, Republican, and Independent
governors. We had little luck with two, who were closely aligned with our opponents in the Maine
Democratic Party. For the past twenty years, the power base for Maine’s Democratic Party has been the
leaders of the teachers union and professional associations which represent principals, superintendents,
and school boards. Maine politicians in the Democratic Party cannot easily ignore or cross the leaders
of these educational organizations, especially if they aspire to higher office.
We hoped that Governor Angus King, an Independent, would support public charter schools; but
he was skeptical and unwilling to risk political capital supporting something his Commissioner of
Education and political allies opposed.
When Democratic Governor John Baldacci was elected, we had similar problems. Access and
influence were easy for our opponents, the union and association leaders (whom we call “the suits”); but
access and influence were not easy for us.
Gov. Baldacci first expressed support and his Commissioner of Education spoke in favor at the
bill’s public hearing; but a week later she had changed her position and spoke “neither for nor against”
the bill. We discovered that opponents had met with the Governor and changed his mind.
We have increased our access and influence with Governors by developing relationships with
current and former staff members. In our advocacy work we teamed with the Democratic Governor’s
former legal counsel and two of his former communications staff.
These connections with the Governor, his staff, Democratic Legislative leaders, statewide media,
and even our opponents proved extremely valuable. National Alliance grants helped us fund key people
for the legislative sessions leading up to, and just after, the bill’s passage.
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Maine Association for Charter Schools
Ironically, we’ve met with the Governors who were not supportive, but not with the current,
supportive Governor, although we’ve met with his staff and his Commissioner of Education. Today his
Assistant for Education Affairs, Tom DesJardin, is with us at the conference.
Republican Governor Paul LePage appointed a strong charter ally, Steven Bowen, as
Commissioner of Education. Commissioner Bowen, who spoke at this conference last year, proved
exceptional in his ability to communicate with both charter supporters and opponents. He was
instrumental in crafting key language that garnered bi-partisan support, yet protected the essentials of
the bill.
Last fall, Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate halfway through Governor
LePage’s 4-year term (all Maine legislators have 2-year terms). Democratic leaders, again in the
majority, used their power to appoint committee chairs and a majority of members to the Education
Committee who were opposed to charter schools. They then drafted bill after bill to undermine the new
charter school law, and make it difficult for charter schools to survive and thrive.
We worked closely with the Governor, his Education Commissioner and Department of
Education staff to reduce and defeat damaging amendments to the charter law. It was disheartening to
see opponents able to force through damaging bills, sometimes using tactics that resulted in a bill
receiving no public hearing before being passed by the Education Committee and sent to the full
Legislature for a vote and likely passage.
Thankfully, the Governor vetoed all negative charter school bills that passed the Legislature,
Pressure was put on individual legislators to vote with their party caucus, and many override votes were
close; but Legislative leaders were never able to muster the 2/3 majority vote needed to override his
vetoes. Due to the Governor’s support and bipartisan support, opponents were unable to pass any
damaging bills during the two legislative sessions our new charter law has been under attack.
Looking Forward
We are encouraged by monitoring reports from the state Charter School Commission and by our
own visits that show Maine’s charter schools are being well managed, parents are happy, and their
children are thriving. Successful schools are our best advocates.
The bipartisan advocacy team, a collaborative of organizations from across the political and
philosophic spectrum with varying degrees of formality, was critical to keeping damaging amendments
from being adopted and getting supportive legislation passed.
A key element in our success has been support from organizations such as the National Alliance,
NACSA, the Center for School Change, and from charter leaders from other states.
Our organization’s support role in the charter movement is proving critical to its success,
preserving the essence of Maine’s charter law as rules and realities potentially disrupt its implementation.
Maine’s law requires a founding group to have exceptional capacity to earn a charter. Application
requirements make it difficult for applicants to earn a charter the first time they try. In Maine’s three
application cycles to date, fifteen groups completed the daunting application process and the Commission
has approved charters for six charter schools.
We worry that the quest to ensure excellence will tend to limit innovation, which is critically
needed in public education and a key reason that charter schools exist.
The Commission and MACS are members of NACSA, and together we have implemented strong
application and accountability measures in Maine. So it is a “go slow” process, and this is important
given the level of opposition; failures would be very damaging to the entire effort.
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Maine Association for Charter Schools
The 2014 gubernatorial race in Maine is heating up – with a Republican incumbent, a Democrat
now in Congress, and an Independent. The Republican and Independent candidates are strong charter
school supporters. The Democratic candidate, at this time, is not, though he just voted for HR 10, the
charter bill now before Congress, and he recently visited a STEM charter school in Portland.
If the Democrats win the governor’s race in November and maintain control in both houses of the
Legislature, attacks on charter schools will likely continue and may increase. It is unclear how the
Democratic candidate for governor would respond to these attacks.
National Governors Association Grant
Outside the political arena, we worked with Governor LePage’s office to facilitate a grant from
the National Governor’s Association on behalf of Maine’s Charter School Commission.
After the Commission was created (through the State Board of Education, its members are not
appointed by the Governor) we helped its members understand their duty under the law. As it began its
work, it was faced with two applications for virtual charter schools from groups affiliated with national
for-profit organizations – K12 and Connections Learning. The Commission realized it lacked the
knowledge needed about virtual charter schools to approve the applications.
Governor LePage really wanted virtual charter schools approved. MACS, working with Joe
Nathan and the Center for School Change, helped the Governor’s office apply for a grant from the
National Governor’s Association, to hold a two-day workshop on virtual education for the Commission,
and on charter school operations for new charter school groups.
Following the workshop, the Commission participated in a webinar we facilitated on virtual
education hosted by iNACOL (International Association for K-12 Online Learning). Commission
members visited online schools in Maine and New Hampshire, studied the experience with virtual charter
schools in other states, and refined their RFP requirements specifically for virtual schools. Although they
still denied a second set of virtual applications, on the third try one virtual charter school was approved
and will open in September. Another is currently applying, for the fourth time, to open in 2015.
Lessons Learned
1. Governors have great power to support or oppose – they can make or break a state’s charter
school movement.
2. Access to Governors is often difficult for advocates, especially compared to opposing groups.
3. Relationships with staff in the Governor’s office are important to being informed about political
activities behind-the-scenes. By relationships, we mean multiple people with multiple
connections to key players.
4. The Governor’s appointment of the Education Commissioner is crucial.
5. Relationships with the Governor’s Education Commissioner are critical to communication with the
Governor, and important in engaging Department of Education staff in helping or hindering charter
interests.
6. Governors may not understand the details and nuances of charter school law and even charter
schools themselves, whether they support them or not, and opportunities to educate Governors
are rare.
7. Since governorships change, a bipartisan advocacy team is critical to passing supportive
legislation, avoiding damaging amendments, and improving bills over time.
8. Advocacy work is time consuming; and to be most effective, it is expensive.
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Maine Association for Charter Schools
Other Important Lessons
1. Mistakes in any aspect of the charter school movement can impact all stakeholders in the sector.
2. But, innovation is too often sacrificed to the desire for caution and accountability.
3. It is difficult to form bi-partisan coalitions when a party that had been out of power comes back
and has to re-learn the ropes of leadership.
4. Former majority parties that become minority parties continue to wield significant power
because they became masters at manipulating the system in their favor.
5.
Visionary educators need help if not experienced in managing non-profit businesses.
6. Demand by parents and families for affordable, higher quality educational options is what drives
the development of new charter schools.
7. Major social change comes slowly.
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