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The latest data from Maine’s schools shows that test scores are plummeting as schools focus on the children of illegal migrants who are welcomed by the state’s employers and politicians.
The latest numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics finds that Maine public school students are at their lowest test scores in thirty years in both reading and math. The data finds that only 33 percent of children in fourth grade are proficient in math and only 26 percent are fluent in reading. These are also some of the worst scores in the nation. Older children are even worse off, with a mere 25 percent proficient in math and 26 percent in reading. The results placed Maine’s students at 38th in the country.
Maine is spending about $15,000 per student for the 176,000 students in its education system, a cost that is more than one thousand dollars above the national average, according to Ballotpedia.
Meanwhile, Maine has also seen a tidal wave of migrants — mostly illegal — as the Democrat-dominated state continues to tout its sanctuary policies, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
The number of children who cannot speak English fluently has soared in the last decade, FAIR says. For instance, 70 percent of students enrolling in Portland’s schools have limited English skills and require special classes to help bring them up to standards in English before they even learn any other subject. This forces schools to spend budget money hiring teachers and other employees who speak a wide variety of languages to try and communicate with these children. FAIR adds that Portland now counts as many as 57 languages being spoken in its classrooms.
It is so bad in Portland that the schools are moving toward requiring all teachers to speak multiple languages, meaning many teachers will be unqualified to teach in the city’s schools. --->READ MORE HERE
A new report shows academic performance in Maine’s public schools is tanking. At the same time, Maine’s illegal alien population is rising as a result of expanding sanctuary policies. It’s an inverse relationship that deserves some honest examination. Unfortunately, given that most public officials, educators, and members of the media in Maine support sanctuary policies, they have little interest in exploring, let alone acknowledging that any nexus might exist between mass immigration and classroom quality. Nor is there much discussion of how taxpayer funds used to support illegal aliens in the sanctuary-urban areas of the state could be used instead to enhance education more broadly in the rest of the state.
In the down category, new data released by the National Center for Education Statistics reveals that Maine students in 2024 had the lowest test scores in three decades in both reading and math. Just 33 percent of Maine fourth-graders are proficient in math — one of the lowest levels in the nation — while only 26 percent of fourth-grade students are reading at grade level. Eighth-graders fared no better with only 25 percent of them proficient in math and 26 percent proficient in reading. As a result, Maine students now rank 38th in the country.
In the up category, immigration – much of it illegal — is surging especially in the state’s population clusters of Portland and surrounding Cumberland County. Due to sanctuary policies in these communities, the area has attracted thousands of illegal aliens and their children — mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. As a result, 70 percent of the students enrolling in the Portland school district in 2023 had limited English skills (versus ten years earlier when 70 percent of students entering the district had advanced English proficiency). Across the school district, 57 languages are now spoken which impose monumental classroom challenges. One former school official admitted, “Every teacher needs to know how to teach students who speak other languages…as we continued to welcome in so many new students it felt like we were at a tipping point.”
A “tipping point” indeed, so much so that the Portland school board recently approved a measure that will require all teachers to obtain credentials to support their teaching of non-English speaking students.
Despite the increase in illegal immigration and the decrease of academic performance in the state – particularly in Portland, there is no earnest effort by school officials to question how one phenomenon may affect the other, only evasive techno-speak. Responding the state’s abysmal report card, Kate Carlisle, spokesperson for Educate Maine, said, “These metrics also highlight persistent achievement and opportunity gaps, which often reflect disparities in resources and support rather than students’ potential or educators’ efforts. Addressing these gaps requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond standardized assessments and focuses on equitable access to high-quality education, economic stability and community support.” --->READ MORE HERE
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