A Little Comment(ary)...

University finances
By BDN Staff
Bangor Daily News

Like other states, Maine has chronically underfunded higher education. Repeatedly turning to the Legislature for more money is not the solution to this problem, however.

Nationally, state support for public higher education, as a share of total spending, has declined in recent decades. In Maine, the state’s share has fallen from more than 70 percent of the university system’s budget in 1989 to 45 percent this year.

Given this reality, schools have to be more creative and self-reliant to ensure they continue to provide an affordable, high quality education. The University of Maine System is no exception.

Yet, university system trustees this week decided to request an additional $8 million for fiscal year 2009. The additional money would be used to offset tuition increases and to improve academic quality, system officials said. With the additional funding, tuition would increase 6 percent. Without it, the expected increase is 12.6 percent.

The new request would be on top of an additional $5 million for the next biennium approved by the Legislature this spring. Even with the additional funding, tuition rose by an average of nearly 10 percent at the system’s seven campuses.

http://bangornews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx?articleid=156369&zoneid=34

Without student votes, is this just a photo op?
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

AUGUSTA — It didn't take long after the confirmation hearing was finished for the photos to start.

After all, it was a big day for Honor Wilkinson and Justin Chenette, and their parents justifiably wanted pictures.

Wilkinson and Chenette are the newest members of the state Board of Education and the first student members in the board's history.

Their parents weren't alone in the camera play as legislators and Education Commissioner Susan Gendron lined up for photos.

As far as confirmation hearings go, the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee was kind. The hearing lacked the attacks, drama and righteousness of most political theater.

"Metaphorically speaking, you're like Tiger Woods – you have a lot of clubs in your golf bag, what club don't you have?" Sen. Peter Bowman, D-York, asked Chenette.

"Does the 'R' in your middle name stand for 'Roll,' as in Honor Roll?" asked Rep. Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou.

As great a day as it was for Wilkinson and Chenette, the hearing was much like the photos – there for show.

Putting people on the board who are directly affected by the board's decisions was a big step. But unlike the other nine members of the board, Wilkinson and Chenette won't get a vote.

If the two are not careful, their tenure on the board, and that of the students that will follow them, will be of as much use as those photos.

In Chenette and Wilkinson, it's clear the board has two students who represent some of the best of what their communities and Maine's schools have to offer.

Wilkinson, 15, is a sophomore at Calais High School, where she's a multi-sport athlete in soccer, basketball and softball, as well as a member of the math team, student council and academic decathlon.

Chenette, 16, is a junior at Thornton Academy in Saco. He's an editor at his school paper, a member of student government, executive producer of Saco's TATV and host of his own debate show.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=182869&ac=PHnws

Youthink: More than a booster seat at the table
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

In school, the lunchroom can be like a chessboard, with players carefully choosing their next move and eventual destination.

People sit with their friends, each group seemingly closed off to prying outsiders.

The same self-selection plays out as the geeks, jocks and everything in between seek each other out.

This poses a dilemma for outsiders, especially if those outsiders happen to be at least a decade older and responsible for how the city operates.

But this was the situation that city councilors, School Committee members, candidates for Congress and the state Legislature faced last week walking into the Portland Youth Summit.

And that's how the in-power and the suddenly empowered came to talk over pasta and brownie sundaes.

The summit was a first-of-its-kind gathering of students from around the city by the youth activism and philanthropy group Youthink.

More than 140 kids were on hand to make new friends and talk about issues facing Portland's young people, such as the lack of all-ages venues, the need for better transportation and the effect of budget cuts on their lives.

And after a morning of discussion, games and even break-dancing, it was time to cue the power lunch.

Huddled off to the side like the new kids from the suburbs were City Councilor David Marshall, School Committee Chairman John Coyne, interim Superintendent Jeanne Whynot-Vickers and Democratic 1st Congressional District candidates Chellie Pingree and Michael Brennan, among others.

That's when the feeding frenzy – literally and figuratively – began.

"So what brought you out here today?" Coyne asked, sitting down with one group.

A few tables away, Brennan asked a table full of students what they thought were the biggest problems facing the country.

"Gas prices," several people shouted.

They were eager to talk about college, and most wanted to attend a school. But the reality is something else.

"I don't think I have the money," said Jamila Abdelkadir, 17.

The topic soon shifted to the presidential race, where more than a few students were in favor of Democrat Barack Obama.

"He knows what it's like, he knows what we all go through," said Sam Yehdego, 18

Across the room, there was more presidential politics, as a group of girls talked with Pingree about Hillary Clinton's chances.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=187141&ac=PHnws

Tuition hikes: Go in debt now, or go in debt later
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

Even when you see things coming, they can still hurt like heck.

It's why you flinch when someone cocks back their fist, and wince as the doctor preps the needle.

No one likes to feel powerless, but it's a situation we've all been in at some point in our lives.

So last week, when the University of Maine System announced that tuition at the state's public universities will increase 10.1 percent, students everywhere were probably flinching.

It's the second straight year the system has seen an increase in tuition and fees of more than 10 percent, and it's the latest in a consecutive streak of increases since 1996.

University officials blame rising fuel costs, a fickle budget and an economy on shaky legs.

Though officials are quick to point out that Maine tuition costs are among the lowest in New England, they seem to be creating an impossible situation for a state that desperately wants its young to go to college, preferably here.

There is only one guy I know who could make sense of all of these things. I sat down with old friend and perennial college student "Slim" Knobedder.

He once fought off a mascot attack from Brutus the Buckeye, the Duke Blue Devil and Bananas the Bear with a bottle of Moxie and a copy of Ladies Home Journal. It's rumored he engaged in a staring match with Chuck Norris to pass a cultural anthropology class. Some say he doesn't eat but is instead fueled by a high-octane version of Red Bull.

Collegiate endeavors are only the beginning of his many areas of expertise.

"It ain't right, I'll tell you that much, man," Slim said. "It's just not fair."

Possibly, but no one says life is supposed to be fair. It's not like the university did this to spite students. They are cutting people's jobs and reducing courses too.

"But didn't they start having budget problems because they were losing students? So now they'll have fewer teachers, less courses and cost more money. How is that going to make things better?" he asked.

That's a fair point, but the economy is not making anything easier. The trouble is we both know it's making the cost of everything go up for schools, students and everyone else.

"I spent $60 on gas the other day just to get to class. By the weekend I'll have burned through it getting to school and work. That's money I ain't gonna see again.

"My rent has gone up in the last year, along with the bills, so I've taken on yet another shady roommate. More lost money there.

"I spend $50 just getting sandwich stuff, fruit and Ramen noodles – the bare essentials for lunch and dinner for a week. Gone," he said.

And now you add to that another $720 onto the tuition bill.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=189959&ac=PHnws

Student projects have 'high stakes' at Casco Bay
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

It seems like there should be more tests.

This is the season when high school seniors are practically squirming out of their seats to get out of the building. It's the time of year when students have a sense of dread mixed with optimism. Even though the end is near, so are the finals.

But at Casco Bay High School, instead of tests, there is a panel of experts from the public and private sectors asking questions like this:

"Once (genetically modified organisms) are introduced in the field, how does one control it so it doesn't pollinate organically controlled plants?"

Junior Sage Dance-Wright doesn't hesitate with the answer.

"They don't really. That's a really big concern, a really big topic. Cross-pollination is a really big problem," she says. "The only thing I could personally think of doing is creating a biosphere."

Though it may sound more like a college thesis defense, it's actually the junior public policy capstone, a six-month behemoth of a research project involving the entire class.

Students pair that research – which focused on topics such as hybrid technology, same-sex marriage and, in Dance-Wright's case, the genetic engineering of foods – with projects in the community designed to put their ideas into action.

It's all part of the ongoing experiment that is Portland's youngest high school, and what makes it just different enough from its peers.

"It seems a lot of work in (a traditional) school is extremely unnecessary and you can't apply it to real life," Dance-Wright says.

She's a member of the inaugural class of Casco Bay, the forerunners and guinea pigs who would see whether the idea of expeditionary learning would actually work.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=191583&ac=PHnws

This graduate's dream made parents lose sleep
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

She wanted a Swiss Army knife for graduation.

Graduation gifts run the range of luggage, cars, expensive trips, bath towels and envelopes of cash.

Maria Anania wanted a Swiss Army knife.

This may have been a surprise to her parents, but it makes total sense when you think about what gift would be most useful if you're going to Army basic training in less than three weeks.

The 5-foot-7 Portland High School graduate gets a big grin on her face at the prospect.

"I'm actually really excited about it," the 17-year-old said.

Once you come to grips with the idea that your little girl wants to go to West Point and be a soldier, you can start to accept things you may have shrugged off before.

Of course, the trick is making that first leap of acceptance.

"I thought it was just a passing thing, an idea she got in her head and would soon be out," said Barbara Anania, Maria's mom.

The tricky thing? Maria won them over by being herself. The same unblinking determination and confidence that they say made her stand out in the classroom as well as softball and field hockey, she used in applying to West Point. It's also the same thing that gives them faith she'll do just fine as a soldier.

"Some days we're very proud. Some days we're melancholy. We hate to see her go," said her dad, Ed.

At the end of her junior year, Maria started to inquire about the U.S. Military Academy, but she made only passing mention of it to her parents. But after she needed to start racking up the recommendations, tests and other material to apply, it became hard to ignore.

"She brought a DVD home, and I wouldn't even watch it," Barbara said.

They tried denying it, ignoring it and even replacing it.

They visited Brown University, pushing the hard sell on how an Ivy League education would be just as challenging as West Point.

No dice.

There are plenty of parents who have dealt with or are dealing with a child who wants to join the armed service. But for the Ananias, the military seemed like it was nowhere in Maria's sights.

"When my baby girl decides she wants to go to West Point, I didn't think it was going to happen," Ed said.

But when Ed and Barbara realized their daughter was not going to bend, they knew they were the ones who would have to change.

Barbara says it happened for her when she read Maria's letter requesting a recommendation from the state's congressional delegation.

The funny thing is that by leaving her to collect information and apply on her own, they were reminded how they raised their daughter to be dedicated and self-assured.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=192958&ac=PHnws


Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

Math + camp = confidence
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

If you could make a list of some of the towering, terrifying parts of going to school, math class and being a high school freshman would have to be on the list, right?

What else inspires more stone-cold dread than the thought of being the lowest guy on the ladder, or drowning in a sea of coefficients, quadratic equations and variables?

"It's definitely not my favorite class," said Ben Alcorn, 14. "I like social studies and science."

Doesn't science involve math?

"Science is just different from math class," he said.

And yet, the incoming freshman to Casco Bay High School found himself in a math class during summer vacation last week.

Ben was one of more than 40 Portland kids camped out at Casco Bay High for a mathematics and leadership program the school district is calling Academic Youth Development.

Let me break down the jargon: The program brings in eighth-graders making the leap to ninth grade to boost their math skills and confidence in themselves.

It's a bridge between the two worlds, where students can meet their teachers, make a few friends before the start of the year and maybe gain a little faith in the system.

Last week the students from the city's three public high schools were at Casco Bay High, and later this month they will spend time at their respective schools, getting to know their way around.

Since it's summer, the program tries to mix equal parts math class with the type of summer camp physical activity needed to burn through 13- and 14-year-olds' energy.

"I'm feeling pretty excited to go from Lyman Moore to Deering," said 13-year-old Caleb Fournier.

But his excitement doesn't exactly extend to learning algebra this coming year.

Caleb said he had a hard time in math "mostly because the teachers would go too fast on it sometimes."

At Deering, Caleb is likely to have Priya Natarajan, one of the instructors in the program, as a math teacher.

"In our culture we have a 'math phobia' or 'math anxiety,' " Natarajan said. "It's seen as not cool to like math."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=202832&ac=PHnws


John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Emotions high as freshmen begin new lives
By DAVID HENCH
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

STANDISH — As Chelsea Laverriere lounged at her desk, surveying her stylishly decorated room at Saint Joseph's College, she felt no anxiety about setting out on her own.

"I'm just excited, excited to be independent. I'm eager to meet the people here," said the Biddeford High School graduate.

Mom and Dad, soaking in a few final moments of her gregarious personality, were excited as well if perhaps a little less eager.

"This will be the first time the house is empty in 25 years," said Gary Laverriere, noting that his two older sons have already headed out to college from the family's home in Arundel.

Chelsea may have been the baby in the family, but the marketing-advertising major has always been the most outgoing, so it was no surprise she wouldn't be clinging to her parents as they said goodbye.

Plus, her new quarters are a far cry from the plain cells of bygone years. She and her roommate, a pal from high school, have a plush tan love seat, a television with a stack of DVDs alongside a microwave and mini-fridge. Strings of novelty lights hang on the walls along with black and white and oh-so-hot posters of David Beckham and Johnny Depp.

Laverriere was one of thousands of new students moving into their dormitories at Maine colleges and universities this weekend, applying their own personality to the blank canvas of the standard dorm room.

First-year students moved onto campus Saturday for schools like Saint Joseph's and Southern Maine Community College and are moving in today at schools like the University of Southern Maine. The University of Maine at Orono welcomed new students Friday.

At USM, new school President Selma Botman planned to spend this morning welcoming the incoming class with handshakes and encouragement, as they hauled their clothing, refrigerators, personal computers and wall decorations up to their rooms.

Uprooting a teenager from the comfortable surroundings of home and plunging them into an entirely new community can be a challenging transition.

Jose E. Azcona chose Saint Joseph's College – a 2-hour drive from his home in Nashua, N.H. – with that in mind.

"It's far enough for them to not come bother me every day, but not too far. If I have a problem, I can call them and they'll come help me," said Azcona, who is studying pre-medicine. First challenge after they left: getting back into the now-locked dormitory.

There was some nostalgia Saturday for Caitlin Davis. A 2008 graduate of Saint Joseph's, she was helping to move her younger sister Alanna into her dorm room.

"It was a lot more disorganized," she said of her arrival in the same dorm four years ago. That said, her sister still showed up without sheets for the bed or a trash can that was left on the counter at home in Epsom, N.H. And after several trips up to the second floor, her mother, Deirdre, decided she would need to get a fan.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=207572&ac=PHnws

FIRST-DAY JITTERS
Nervous about sending your kids to school? You're not alone, so stay calm and prepare now for change.
By RAY ROUTHIER
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

Starting school for the first time can be stressful.

So imagine what starting school all over again could be like.

Andrea Norwood has, as she prepares to send her 5-year-old son to kindergarten this week.

"There's the realization that you're going to live your own childhood over again through your child – that your child will go through some of the same struggles you went through," said Norwood, of Gray. "And you'll feel those emotions all over again."

Sending a child to school for the first time can be stressful for parents as well as the child. There are so many questions: Is my child ready? Will he or she make friends? What should I do to help my child prepare?

One thing a nervous parent should do is to try to be less nervous. Address your jitters as constructively as possible, so that you can then calmly address any jitters your child has.

"Adults are perhaps more stressed than the kids about starting school, so it's important to remember that kids take their cues from us," said Meg Kirschner, a kindergarten teacher at the Children's Center, a nonprofit child development program and school in Portland. "It's important to talk to your child about it, and if they see we are matter-of-fact and calm about it, they will be too."

The fact is, going off to school is a big adjustment for both children and parents, even if a child has been in day care or at a preschool. Kindergarten may be a longer day, it will probably be more structured, and the expectations for the child will be higher.

So the question on most parents' minds will be, "How will my child do?"

Norwood says one reason for the "sad" feeling she's experiencing as she prepares to send her son to kindergarten is that he is her only child. He's been in a half-day preschool program and will be going to full-day kindergarten. He'll also be riding a bus every day.

Those are a lot of changes for a child to deal with, and for a parent as well.

"It's the thought of seeing his little face out the window (of the bus) and waving goodbye," Norwood said.

So what can a parent do to deal with this emotional transition?

One important thing is to look at starting kindergarten as a transition that has no firm end date. Observe your child's adjustment, be supportive and be patient.

"We, as teachers, have no expectation of how long it will take. It's different for every child," Kirschner said. "Be attentive, and talk to your child when they come home."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=207171&ac=Home

Probing cost of school raises
Dieter Bradbury's inquiry into Portland's teacher contract is public service journalism in action.
By JEANNINE GUTTMAN
Portland Press Herald

Whenever our news staff holds public meetings in the community, especially in the Portland area, we hear a common refrain: Please do more investigative reporting. Please keep better tabs on government. Please help us hold elected officials accountable.

Readers value reporting of this kind. And so do journalists. It is the reason that many of us got into the profession in the first place.

But investigative reporting is not a quick turn. Often, reporters and editors must spend months trying to unravel one issue. It's meticulous detective work that can monopolize a reporter's time for weeks on end.

Along the way, there are bureaucracies to battle, reluctant interviewees to track down, theories to test and retest, and reams of documents to digest. There is legal language to decipher and red tape to combat.

Sometimes your quest follows a smooth path; more often than not, however, it is a rocky road, filled with formidable obstacles and barricades. The answers don't come easy; the sources aren't always cooperative.

Some reporters like a fresh start each day, relishing the idea of covering the latest breaking news developments and seeing their bylines in the newspaper. This is not their cup of tea. Investigative reporting requires a single, long-term focus; it takes a lot of patience, fortitude and endurance.

Today on Page A1 we offer a riveting example of such work. One of our top reporters, Dieter Bradbury, took a look at the Portland school budget, particularly at the raises that teachers had been granted under a new labor contract that was later modified. The project spanned four months.

His questions: How much did the salary raises allowed by that new contract end up costing taxpayers in Portland? Why was the contract put in place with such liberal rules around salary adjustments? Did anyone know the actual costs that would be incurred when it was approved? And, finally, even though the contract has been changed, how will Portland deal with the higher budget floor now in place as a result of those pay increases?

I asked Bradbury to reflect on his work and his experiences reporting this story.

"I hope that this story gives readers new insights into the relationships among the Portland School Committee, the district administration and the school system's largest union of educators," he said. "Those relationships aren't always apparent in press releases and public meetings. Yet they reveal much about how the school board and its employees run our schools and spend the public money that supports them."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=207367&ac=Insight