Is Senator Collins still our “Perfect Senator, as Sen. Angus King has called her?

Many admirers of Sen. Susan Collins were surprised and dismayed by her vote early Saturday morning to pass the much revised Senate tax return bill, with its devastating cuts to ObamaCare and its burdensome taxation of graduate student stipends throughout American higher education–among other controversial components. I was not surprised. I have never been persuaded […]

Questions for the UMaine Presidential Search Committee

As the search gets underway for a “permanent” UMaine President to succeed the highly respected  and much liked “interim” President Sue Hunter, questions should be addressed from the start. Should the finalists be Mainers by birth  or least have spent considerable time in Maine? Would being “from away” necessarily be a liability? Should the finalists […]

Governor LePage’s contempt for classroom teachers is in the American tradition

By now it is hardly surprising that Governor LePage has contempt for nearly all educators outside of vocational schools and vocational departments within comprehensive schools. His recent comments that classroom teachers are a dime “a dozen” and waste their time and that of their students in using books is, alas, as American as apple pie. […]

The Blind Faith & Obedience of State Rep. Ken Fredette reaffirmed

Education: Future Imperfect Contemporary perspectives on education Could Rep. Ken Fredette Have Saved Richard Nixon’s Presidency? An updated version of my May 15, 2015, blog regarding Maine House Minority Leader Ken Fredette as a cowardly blind follower of Gov. LePage and a complete opposite of courageous Maine Republicans Margaret Chase Smith and William Cohen. Like […]

School Choice Did Not Characterize America’s Black Colleges, Sec. DeVos

New Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently characterized  America’s historically black colleges and universities as pioneers in the school choice crusade that she leads. That our highest federal government official could be so misinformed about the origins of those institutions speaks for itself about her lack of qualifications for her Cabinet post. Nearly all of […]

Senator Collins’ support of Senator Sessions is no surprise

Back˚ in September 2015 I posted a blog after reading an otherwise forgettable item in Maine newspapers about a lecture delivered by Senator Collins at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. This was an inaugural Distinguished Lecture filled with the usual self-congratulatory rhetoric of Collins’ saintly bi-partisanship. Collins’ brother Sam still chairs the University […]