By Dan Aceto

Staff Writer

When students in Brooks Neal’s seventh-grade social studies class sent letters to Gov.-elect Paul LePage, they weren’t sure what sort of response they’d receive. Little did they know their voices would be heard loud and clear.

LePage, who said he was moved by the gesture, visited Neal’s Scarborough classroom last week for a question and answer session with students on topics from gun control to the price of school lunch.

Neal said her class followed the election and issues important to each candidate.

“When we looked at the election results and saw that LePage won with only 38 percent of the vote, we got into a discussion about this idea of our next governor not being very popular,” Neal said. “This led us into the idea of respecting the office and the fact that perhaps we may not all like him, but we can still let him know what we would like to see happen in Maine and our community for the next four years. After all, he is our governor with the power to change things, so why not work with him?”

Neal said students learned to write a proper letter with a respectful tone and were challenged to elicit some kind of response.
“We never expected a visit!” Neal said.

As LePage took a seat on one of the same chairs used by students, he acknowledged the public’s important role in raising the awareness of elected officials.
  “As the mayor I spent a lot of time in an office listening to a lot of people. But that’s where you get all the answers for all the problems, because people have already gone through it. They know how to get out of it and so they come and tell the mayor,” LePage said. “So if you ever have a problem, you need to go to your town office or city hall and complain and tell them you’re not happy because the only way things get better is when people speak up.”

And when it came time for students to ask questions, speak up they did.

Danielle Guibord stood and addressed LePage before the class.

“I was looking around on your website a couple of nights ago and I was surprised because I saw this: It said that you supported an amendment that every Mainer has the right to bear arms and that right will never be questioned and I thought that was contradictory with your second statement to keep Mainers safe always. So my question is, how will you do that?” Guibord asked. 

LePage held his ground and supported his statement.

“That’s the best way to stay safe. The Constitution of the United States, the Second Amendment, says that we have the right to bear arms. I believe, very, very strongly, that law-abiding citizens will follow the law, but I also believe that crooks don’t care,” LePage said. “And if we take away the guns from all the good people, the crooks are still going to find ways to have guns. So I believe that law-abiding citizens should be able to own guns and the only people that shouldn’t have guns are bad people. Our job is to take away guns from bad people.”

LePage cited an incident when a student held classmates hostage with a sword, and posed the question, “Do you take away swords or do you take away the person?” 

Guibord said she believes the person should be taken away.

LePage agreed. 

“I think we need to concentrate on getting bad people off the streets,” he said.

The topic of education soon became focus of the discussion.

Student Sarah Mulligan wanted to know LePage’s view of the merit pay system for teachers, otherwise known as performance-based pay.

LePage said he doesn’t agree with certain aspects of the system and said his policy for education in Maine was “much broader.”

LePage said three key issues shape his policy.
  “Number one, I believe every person should have the choice to pick which public school they go to. I don’t think you should be told by the government where you have to go to school,” he said.

“Number two, I believe we should have charter public schools. The reason I believe that is that charter public schools should be able to concentrate on certain areas of specialization,” LePage said.

LePage said he believes students should have a variety of choices of subjects to study in school, such as natural resources, agriculture, marine resources, special education and others. He cited the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone as an example of a school that offers specialized education.

Lastly, LePage said he believes in the need for a broader curriculum in schools and said he would like to see vocational and technical skills brought back into mainstream education.

“My fear is that people that go into the vocational and technical area are looked down upon,” LePage said. “I believe it is important that people not only have a job for life, but a vocation you like to do.”

LePage said he would also like to see the current education system extended a year from kindergarten to 13^th grade, with students then going on to attend a two-year college.

LePage said several areas in California, Florida and North Carolina have already adopted the practice and have lowered the dropout rate in high school.

“We need to start with a strong educational system,” said LePage. “I also believe, and some people criticized me during the campaign for saying this, that the most important person in the classroom is the student. If we were the highest educated, best school system in the country, they may convince me otherwise, but until we have the best students coming out of our schools, then I believe students are most important and teachers second,” LePage said. “A good teacher is invaluable and is a hero, but not every teacher is a hero.” 

Student Colby Thompson had another question about LePage’s policy.

“Are you planning on lowering the price of school lunch?” he asked.

LePage said although a federal program offers free and reduced hot lunches for students who qualify, he would like to see those benefits extended to all students.

“That way you wouldn’t have any issues at all. Every student would have a lunch, everybody would eat and everybody would be fine,” he said.

LePage said he is looking into a program that would achieve this goal and be funded by businesses. 

For Drew Schineller, the topic of the economy was first and foremost. 

“How do you plan to stimulate the economy and brings jobs to Maine?” he asked.

LePage outlined his plan of action: 

“To make government smaller, allow business people to have less regulations and make it less costly, so instead of having to pay licenses and fees to everyone and spend all your money before you even start a business, you let them go into business and then when they’re successful, let them pay taxes to the government,” LePage said. “We need to allow people that are visionary, creative risk-takers to go out and start companies without the government interfering all the time.”

LePage said he wants to establish a program that would allow people who want to start businesses apply for grants that would help promote job growth in the state. 

LePage said that while Maine is “a beautiful state of mountains, rivers, oceans and forest, most Maine people make less money than their counterparts in other states.” 

He said Maine is ranked 16^th in a national survey on the quality of life in the nation, and the per capita income is 80 percent of the national average.

 Massachusetts, which is ranked number one in the survey, has a per capita income that is 110 percent the national average, despite the fact that, “it takes forever to find a tree,” LePage said.

“So what we’re going to do is make government smaller and make them get out of the way,” LePage said.

Lydia Libby said although she understands LePage wants to change policy in schools, she wondered how the governor-elect felt about the current state of education in Maine.

LePage said some schools in the state are very good, but that is not the case for all. 

“Yesterday there was a report out that said the best schools in the state are Scarborough, Yarmouth and Cumberland. Those are also the wealthiest communities in the state, so what that correlation says is that it takes a lot of money to have good schools,” he said.

LePage said he believes it’s important that money in every school be earmarked to provide teachers more resources.

Libby also asked LePage if Maine would be less in debt if the state used more natural resources rather than machines.

“Both yes and no,” LePage said.
“We need machines to get to the natural resources,” he said.

LePage said development of new technologies has helped those in the agricultural industry become more efficient and recognized the improvement of global positioning systems on tractors as an advancement in farming.

“I went to Aroostook County last fall and they have a GPS that can tell them where the potatoes are, where the beets are and exactly what species are in the ground. They can tell by row where exactly in the field every potato is planted. That’s amazing,” LePage said. “We could not have done that without research development and technology.”

LePage said whether students wish to pursue a career in farming or filmmaking, two subjects in school are critical to any profession – English and math.

“If you say you hate it, you’ve got to have it. Everything you’re going to do is going to spring from communications and math and there are very few careers you can go into without strong communication skills and an understanding of the English language,” he said.

LePage said it’s important for students to be challenged throughout life and remembered a college professor who motivated him to work harder than any other had.

“I was trying to get a 4.0 and there was only one teacher who gave me a B+. He said, ‘I have you pegged as a B+ student and I don’t know if there’s anything you can do to change that.’ And that to me is the challenge of all challenges. When someone tells me I can’t do something, and then I do it,” LePage said. “So I just worked harder and harder and harder and I learned more from him than any other teacher in life because he kept pushing and pushing me.”

LePage said although throughout the whole course he never received higher than a B+, his final report card read, “B+++.”

Before LePage left the classroom, Principal Barbara Hathorn had one final question for the governor-elect:
  “You have a big job cut out for you. This state has a lot of work to do. How can these students help you do your job and help Maine grow?” she asked.

LePage said the most important thing children can do is continue to question those around them, whether parents or politicians, and to most importantly stay involved.

“These issues facing Maine will not be resolved by the governor. They will not be resolved by the Legislature, but by the people that support the vision of Maine. If you buy into the vision, then you will come up with ideas to make Maine better,” LePage said.