John Hickenlooper's time Down East in 1970

A few years ago, I was in Denver writing this POLITICO story on how the city built a metro-wide light rail system from scratch, a story that led to my interviewing then-governor (and former Denver mayor) John Hickenlooper.

He gets on the phone, hears I'm from Maine, and first thing he says is "You must know (D.L Geary Brewing founder) David Geary" (both men are micro brewing pioneers); the second is that as a teen he spent a summer volunteering at a free school in Maine. That school, it turned out, was in Robbinston and had been co-founded by Susan Tureen, who had been pushed out of her public school teaching job probably because she was married to Tom Tureen, the Passamaquoddy tribe's new attorney, in the midst of the epic land claims fight.

Now Hickenlooper is running for president, so I put a fuller story together for this week's Maine Sunday Telegram. Enjoy.

For more on the situation in Easternmost Maine in 1970, see the 29-part Press Herald series "Unsettled," especially Chapters 10 to 13.

Collins defends silencing Warren, and other DC tales

Two stories on Maine's U.S. Senators and Trump cabinet nominee confirmations to share:

In tomorrow's Portland Press Herald, I have this story, in which Sen. Susan Collins (R) defends her vote to silence her colleague, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, for reading a letter from MLK Jr's widow that "impugns" the character of Jeff Sessions, Trump's pick for attorney general, who was confirmed by Collins and her colleagues this evening. (Maine's other senator, Independent Angus King, opposed the move.)

In yesterday's Press Herald, I reported on the two senators' votes against education secretary Betsy DeVos, who was also confirmed. (Collins had earlier cast the decisive vote to let DeVos' nomination out of committee.)

That is all.

Collins not sold on DeVos as education secretary

In today's Portland Press Herald, I report on Sen. Susan Collins', R-Maine, having cautioned she may not support President Donald Trump's controversial nominee for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, though she did vote to send her candidacy out of committee.

Collins was joined by fellow Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. She also revealed an exchange of letters with DeVos in which the nominee pledged not to impose school vouchers -- a penchant of hers -- on any state or school district.

Details herein.

Maine's other senator, Independent Angus King, has already said he will oppose DeVos. I wrote about the education secretary in the Press Herald recently here.

Sen. Angus King will oppose Betsy DeVos's confirmation

In breaking news, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), told me yesterday afternoon that he won't be supporting President Trump's choice for education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) didn't respond to inquires about her position on DeVos. The story is in today's Portland Press Herald.

Last month I wrote about what Maine might expect from a DeVos-run education department. She was also a member of the board of Jeb Bush's education foundation, which was at the center of this 2012 investigation, which won a George Polk Award.

That is all.

Maine: How will Trump administration effect LePage's education reform drive?

In this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, I write about how the incoming Trump administration -- and its education secretary nominee, billionaire school voucher and charter school champion Betsy DeVos -- might effect the landscape for Gov. Paul LePage's school reform drive.

The most likely effect, experts say: new pressure to lift the 10-school cap on taxpayer-financed, privately-operated charters schools. Read on for details.

DeVos is a board member and major contributor to Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, a focus of this 2012 investigation for the Telegram.

At EDMC, former Maine governor McKernan had a questionable legacy

I did a deep dive on former Maine Governor John McKernan's legacy as CEO and board chair of Education Management Corporation, or EDMC, the for-profit college network that ran afoul of the US Department of Justice, multiple state attorneys general, and the inspector general of the US Department of Education.

Here's what I learned, in today's Maine Sunday Telegram. There's also a sidebar.

McKernan was governor of Maine from 1987 to 1995 and is married to Sen. Olympia Snowe.

Facing blowback, Maine gives Jeb Bush's education foundation the cold shoulder

In this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, I report on how the administration of Paul LePage dissolved once-close ties with Jeb Bush's education foundation, which had apparently become a political liability.

Back in 2012, I wrote this investigation of the ties between Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, for-profit digital education providers and the Maine Department of Education, which outsourced much of the drafting of Maine's inaugural digital charter school rules and policies. (The two-part investigation won a George Polk Award that year.) We followed up with additional details here and here and here showing the Foundation's central role in the creation of the "grading schools" initiative, the governor's "education summit" and other education reform efforts.

But after Commissioner Steven Bowen left office in the late summer of 2013, emails and other correspondence show, the relationship quick cooled, and future commissioners didn't even join the Foundation's Chiefs for Change group, which Bowen had been an active participant in. Here's an excerpt:

Foundation officials reached out again...offering to “touch base on how we can best support your efforts after grades are made public.” [the department] again turned them down, and rejected the foundation’s subsequent offer to issue a news release in support of the new grades.

“In sharp contrast to last year, we’ve been able to maintain very positive coverage around the rollout of this year’s grades because we haven’t connected it to any larger national reform work,” [the department spokesperson] explained in a May 14 response. “Honestly, I do not think a statement from the foundation would be helpful to us or our messaging here in Maine at this time, however, we really respect the work the foundation is doing and the importance of school grades becoming more widely used across the county (sic).”

After May 2014, correspondence between the foundation and the department quickly dwindled to the receipt of mass mailings and short, infrequent exchanges of policy accomplishments and news releases.

Enjoy the story.

Did Maine overpay for iPads in schools?

Maine, home of the first statewide one-to-one computers in schools program, may have paid to much for the iPads that replaced Apple laptops in many schools a year ago.

In yesterday's Portland Press Herald, I reported on an analyst's detailed comparison of what Maine's Department of Education paid for its iPad package from Apple with what the Los Angels United School District paid for the same technology at the same time for a similarly sized program. Maine got half the discount against retail that LAUSD negotiated.

The LAUSD contract has since come unraveled because of allegedly inpappropriate ties between top district officials and both Apple and curriculum software provider Pearson. At issue is whether the district paid too much -- not too little -- for its iPad contract.

Last week, I reported that the head of Maine's program, Jeff Mao, is leaving state government. He was also at the center of a public records scandal of sorts involving the same analyst who crunched the numbers comparing Maine and L.A.
 

Maine: Virtual charter schools back on the table

For those who recall my 2012 investigation of virtual charter school policy in Maine -- which won a George Polk Award last year -- there's been a new development this week.

The state's authorizing body, the charter school commission, surprised many by giving initial approval to the applications of two twice-rejected virtual school applicants, those backed by controversial national online school providers K12 Inc and Connections Learning. The two companies have been in hot water across the country for running schools that score badly in most standardized quality metrics and for having too much control over the local boards that are supposed to be their bosses. Indeed, in Maine my reporting showed that K12 and Connections provided the impetus for the creation of the local boards for their respective schools.

The charter school commission's move follows unsuccessful legislative action to curb or ban virtual charter schools from the state, or to create a state run virtual school that would presumably have more distance from the for-profit providers; the governor's digital education advisory panel failed to champion the virtual schools -- where tuition is paid for by local taxpayers -- in their initial report last year.

The commission also gave a preliminary nod to a Lewiston-Auburn charter school with links to the curious Gulen movement, thought to be one of the key players in the current political crisis in Turkey. The Gulen-linked Turkish Cultural Center of Maine has sponsored trips for several state legislators and held an awards dinner for Gov. Paul LePage recently in Portland. Gulen's followers also has a penchant for creating U.S. charter schools, as revealed by the New York Times a few years back.

Don't get me wrong: when I was based in the Balkans, I was a frequent visitor to Turkey and think it an impressive and fascinating place. But one does wonder: why all the attention to diplomacy and education in the Pine Tree State? No other country save perhaps Canada has given our humble corner of the U.S. so much, and they're our neighbor, one-time source of emigrants to Maine, and a major economic partner. Perhaps all will soon be clear.

Maine's "laptop program" becomes a "tablet program"

I'm remiss in posting last week's story on the launch of the fourth incarnation of Maine's historic "laptops in schools" program, the first in the nation -- and possibly the world -- to put a computer in the hands of every public school seventh and eighth grader.

This year's relaunch was marked by controversy. As previously reported, Gov. Paul LePage sought to end the program altogether, but was talked out of it by his (now departed) education commissioner, Steve Bowen. The governor then personally intervened in the selection process, delaying new contracts by weeks and, ultimately, selecting the fourth-ranked device, because it was the least expensive Windows-based option. But he also allowed schools to chose from that laptop's competitors, the Apple iPad and Apple MacBook.

So how's the launch gone?

In terms of getting devices deployed -- something school districts were worried about given the delays and confusion surrounding the new contract -- it's gone extremely well. Schools are optimistic about their respective devices too.

But if Gov. LePage sought to switch Mainers over to Windows-based systems -- as internal administration correspondence has shown was a priority -- then not so well. Ninety percent of schools opted not for the state's official choice, but for Apple products, and sixty percent chose the iPad. But I've said too much already. Just read the story from last Wednesday's Portland Press Herald.

LePage administration proposes weakening anti-smog regulations

A couple of Maine-related updates that intersect with investigative projects I've done in recent months:

LePage administration and smog: As I report in tomorrow's Portland Press Herald, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection has been quietly seeking to repeal some anti-smog requirements that effect new or newly-modified industrial facilities. Environmentalists are crying foul; the administration says it will be good for the economy. No public hearing has been scheduled, the public comment period ends tomorrow, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (which must approve the change) is allegedly on board with it.

The state DEP was the subject of a five-part, three-day investigation published in the Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram last month. [Update, 8/1/13: some further developments here.]

Steve Bowen's role model in trouble: The Associated Press reports that former Indiana and current Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett -- a pioneer in the effort to assign A-F letter grades to public schools -- cheated on the grading of a charter school run by a political ally. Bennett, a close friend of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, was the keynote at Gov. LePage's education summit earlier this year in Augusta. Education commissioner Steve Bowen described Bennett as his role model in his introductory remarks.

Jeb Bush's Florida-based foundation played a key role in bringing A-F letter grading of schools to Maine, and in ghost writing Maine's digital education and virtual charter school policies.

Maine Gov. LePage considered killing school laptop program

My story in today's Portland Press Herald reveals that Gov. Paul LePage wanted to end the state's laptops in schools program, but was talked out of it by his education commissioner.

Internal documents show LePage's concerns and Bowen's successful argument that they should at least put a request for proposals out to renew the program, as they could still shut the program down if they didn't like the bids they received.

There's also continued confusion among schools as to how much various technologies will cost under the new contract, which would go into effect in the fall. This contract has been delayed for months -- and still isn't fully concluded -- as Gov. LePage studied (and overrode) the evaluations of the five semi-finalist bids.

Maine's laptops-in-schools program was the first in the nation to give each and every public school middle school student and teacher a laptop. Many districts have chosen to buy additional devices for their high school students at the reduced bulk prices negotiated by the state.

A correction to note: the print edition quotes LePage's spokesperson Adrienne Bennett saying he had "specific concerns with non-Windows systems". That should have read LePage had no specific concerns. (Apologies to Bennett for that typo.)

[Update, 9/5/13: Here's how the initial deployment went.]

Loeb Award Finalist, Virtual schools update

This morning UCLA's Anderson School of Management announced the finalists for the 2013 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, the most prestigious in said field.  I'm greatly honored to have been among them.

The nomination is for my Maine Sunday Telegram investigation on online education interests have shaped the development of digital learning and virtual schools policies here in Maine. It's in the Small and Medium Newspapers category with worthy competitors from the Raleigh News & Observer, Tampa Tribune, and Charlotte Observer. This is the story that won a George Polk Award earlier this year.

The winners will be chosen at an awards ceremony in New York June 25th.

By coincidence, in today's Portland Press Herald, I have an update on the issues raised in the Sept. 2 investigation. In short, the effort to adopt the policies advocated by Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education has stalled, though the state education commissioner says they remain part of the ongoing policy discussion.

Speaking in defense of the humanities, Augusta, Me, May 17

For those in Central and Southern Maine, I'll be giving the lunch address at the University of Maine's Maine Humanities Summit this Friday, May 17 in Augusta.

My talk is titled “Liberal Arts in the Real World: An Author-Historian-Journalist’s Argument for the Importance of the Humanities," which sums it up pretty well. Other participants include museum directors, library heads, college and university professors, and the chair of the American Folk Festival. There's a PDF with the full agenda here.

I gather the event is free and open to the public, but you do need to register in advance. For more  information go online or contact UMaine Humanities Initiative Director Justin Wolff, 207.581.3259

Confusion remains following Governor's decision on Maine's "laptops in schools" contract

On Saturday afternoon, Gov. Paul LePage announced his long-delayed decision on which of five technology packages would be awarded the new contract for Maine's "laptops in schools" program, the oldest 1:1 school computer program in the nation.

LePage picked a proposal built around Windows-based HP laptops over a lower-priced iPad tablet package that had received much higher scores from proposal reviewers. But the governor said schools which preferred to stick with the Apple technologies they've used to date -- adopting either the iPad or another proposal based on MacBooks -- could do so.

But at what price? As my story in today's Portland Press Herald relates, nobody is yet certain of the answer.

Speaking on American Nations, Rockport, Maine, May 3

Speaking on American Nations: For residents in the Penobscot Bay region of Maine, I'll be giving a talk on the issues raised in American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America at the Samoset in Rockport on May 3.

It's for the spring luncheon of the Coastal Senior College of  University College Rockland, which is open to the public. Tickets are $25 for non-members and reservations have to be made by April 29. Details at their website.

My next scheduled, public talk on American Nations in Maine is June 26th at the Maine Audubon Society in Falmouth.

Delays for Maine laptop program: Also, in an unrelated development, I report in today's Portland Press Herald on how Maine's delay in naming the winner of the renewed "laptops in schools" contract is causing anxiety and consternation for the state's school districts. 

I last wrote on the laptop program last month, when the program's director was found to have not been storing his electronic correspondence on state servers..... for a decade.

Florida investigators ding K12 Inc; alewives free at last; Connor under fire

After a long period of workflow-induced radio silence, a few updates of interest to Mainers and, perhaps Floridians, New Brunswickers, and some Pennsylvanians as well:

Investigators ding K12 Inc.: K12, the nation's largest online education provider, has been under investigation in Florida over accusations it used unqualified teachers in a taxpayer-financed virtual school there. As I report in today's Portland Press Herald, a draft report has been made public which finds against the company on two of three counts. Testimony to investigators also reflects on the sort of attention -- or lack thereof -- students of the school receive.

K12 has been seeking to operate a virtual charter school here in Maine, but has been rebuffed by authorizers, angering Gov. Paul LePage, who strongly supports their creation. It was at the center of the Sept. 2 Maine Sunday Telegram investigation that won this year's George Polk Award for Education Reporting.

St. Croix alewives free at last: Last summer I reported on the bizarre odyssey of the spring spawning runs of St. Croix River alewives, which had been banned from the sprawling international watershed by an act of the Maine legislature. After many twists and turns -- and reflecting the scientific and economic evidence that the fish help, not hurt the ecosystem there -- a bill ordering the state to open the fishways to the schooling fish has become law, after Gov. LePage chose not to veto it.

Former Press Herald chief Rich Connor accused of stealing $500K from company: The parent company of the paper I work for, the Portland Press Herald, has accused former CEO and editor in chief Rich Connor of essentially stealing over half a million dollars from the paper while it was in precarious financial condition.

Long before I ever expected to work for Maine Today Media, I covered the Press Herald's plight for Maine-based magazines. Connor -- who is being sued by his other former employers, the Times-Leader of Wilkes-Barre, for appropriating another quarter million -- did a lot of damage to journalism as well as the paper's balance sheets. Here's his "no scoops" vision as articulated to me for this 2010 feature in Down East and, for context, a bit about how he left the paper on the eve of its rescue (ultimately to S. Donald Sussman, not Harte and company, as it turned out.)

DePoy-Warren moving from state DEP to Department of Education: For inside baseball people, Samantha DePoy-Warren, the iconoclastic communications chief at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is redeploying to the Department of Education, where she will take the communications portfolio from David Connerty-Marin. Warren confirmed her last day at DEP is this Friday. Marin said he's switching to another position within the education department.

Jeb Bush reforms spotlighted at Maine governor's education conference

For those following the intersection between former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the school choice movement, for-profit education companies, and the development of education reforms here in Maine, my story in today's Portland Press Herald may be of interest.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage hosted his education conference yesterday, and he met most of the presenters he invited while attending Bush's national education summit last November, including senior staff from his Foundation for Excellence in Education. The conference was as expected: a pitch for opening up Maine's public education system via vouchers, the removal of limits on charter schools and digital charters schools, a loosening of teacher accreditation requirements, and vigorous testing. The reaction was also predictable: school choice advocates loved it, teacher's unions and progressive activists denounced it, and the uninitiated probably felt a bit confused.

The most interesting aspect from my point of view was the governor's uncharacteristically conciliatory tone before an audience that included many skeptical school administrators -- and Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett's explicit on-stage advice to him to try to reach out to all Mainers. (Bill Nemitz has wondered aloud about LePage's recent moderation.)

The story got cut a bit for space. A couple tid-bits from the cutting room floor: two presenters -- a Democratic Georgia state legislator and a retired Maine Maritime Academy professor -- didn't show up. The Maine G.O.P. put out a press release on behalf of their members of the legislature's education committee saying they were inspired by the conference. The Democratic chair of that committee, Rep. Bill MacDonald of Boothbay, didn't respond to requests for comment.


Education department spokesperson David Connerty-Marin said the conference had been “a chance to hear from other states about what they think works...We’re looking at all of it,” he added, “ but that doesn’t mean we plan to pursue everything that was talked about today.”

For more background from my past coverage of all this, start here.

Jeb Bush Foundation executive director-cum lobbyist backtracks

I'm a few days late in posting this, but for those education policy wonks out there who may have missed page B6 of last Tuesday's Portland (Maine) Press Herald, there's an update on the employment-and-lobbying status of Patricia Levesque, the executive director of Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, which is active in shaping Maine education policy.

In short, a day after a newspaper in Tampa picked up on Levesque's dual role, her lobbying firm suddenly pulled all its 2013 client registrations in Florida. The Foundation says she's going to become an actual employee now, instead of being contracted through her apparently conflicted lobbying firm.

More details within.

Levesque and Bush's foundation featured prominently in my Sept. 2 Maine Sunday Telegram investigation, the story which recently received the 2012 George Polk Award for Education Reporting. She and two foundation colleagues are speaking this Friday at Maine Gov. Paul LePage's education conference.

The Case of the Missing State E-mails (and some virtual schools updates)

My story in today's Maine Sunday Telegram is on the strange saga of Jeff Mao's state email accounts.

Mao heads Maine's $13 million annual laptops-in-schools programs at the state's education department, has overseen or is presently overseeing hundreds of millions in state contracts related to the project. But when a computer firm concerned about the way contracts were being rewarded filed a public records request for correspondence related to two recent contracts, they eventually discovered Mao's emails weren't and never have been on the state's servers or backed up by the state's network. It gets stranger from there.

Enjoy the read.

Meanwhile, two updates on the virtual schools front.

First, Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education -- which promotes expansion and deregulation of full-time virtual charter schools -- has been receiving bad press recently for its activities and corporate entanglements, many of which my reporting in the Telegram and Portland Press Herald first exposed. This week, the Foundation suddenly decided to change the way it pays Patricia Levesque, whose status as an online services company lobbyist-turned contracted Foundation executive director was perhaps hard to defend with a straight face.(Levesque is a featured speaker at Maine Gov. Paul LePage's education conference later this month.)

Secondly, the editorial board of Maine's third largest daily, the Lewiston Sun-Journal,weighed in on virtual charter school policy here in Maine, and found it lacking. (The Bangor Daily News editorialized on the topic in September, shortly after my Telegram investigation appeared.)