"Putting Money at the Point of Learning" by Stephen Spring in the Portland Forecaster: August 16, 2006

I returned from my family vacation Satruday and picked up the Forecaster at my usual place - Sonny's on Congress Street. I read your editorial "New school year..." and felt compelled to clear things up. You missed the real story.

Two times in the past year, your paper has charged that the Greens have put partisan politics above doing the work of improving our schools. The first time was when me and three other elected officials quested the size of the superindtendent's pay raise in a failed attempt with a 4-5 vote to reduce the raise to something we could support. This led to charges that he Greens were meeting in private to do this and was somehow tied to the Class of 2023 Initiative.

Last week, you decided to focus on some bogus charge that was invented by teh chairwoman of teh school Board, Ellen Alcorn, and her local Party Boss rather than on what the real issue was. The notice that three of us were meeting to chat about downsizign administration brought attention to the fact that Portalnd Public Schools had two assistant superintendents. With one retiring, it was time eliminate one of those $100,000 a year positions. The outcome of what you call a 'shenanigan' is that we now have this money to put at the 'point of learning.'

You call this pushing a party agenda - I call it improving our schools by redirecting meoney so it ends up in the classroom.