On Monday morning, over breakfast at the Blaine House, members of the newly formed Blue Ribbon Commission on Maine Education Finance and Achievement flunked a critical public access test.
The group, which is required by law to meet in public, didn’t do that.
Instead, its membership met in secret to begin work on potentially sweeping changes to public education in Maine.
Education is a topic that matters to every single Mainer, from kindergartners learning to read, to employers eager for well-educated job-ready employees, to retirees on fixed incomes who worry about paying the next property tax bill, and everyone in between.
We all have a heavy stake in what this commission discusses and recommends, and its deliberate act to meet in secret was an affront to all.
The 15-member commission was created through emergency legislation during the most recent session, and signed into law by Gov. Paul LePage last month. By law, the membership was required to hold its first meeting by May 1, and last Thursday the state’s deputy commissioner of education, Bill Beardsley, issued a welcome letter in which he very clearly noted “attached is an agenda for our first meeting.” And, that agenda very clearly stated the “1st Meeting” will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Blaine House Monday.
On Monday morning, as members of the press and the public showed up at the governor’s mansion for the meeting, the governor’s staff made it very clear the meeting was by invitation only. If you were not invited, go away.
The “1st Meeting” of the blue ribbon commission was re-cast as a get-ta-know-ya breakfast.
There is no exception in Maine law that permits a public body to meet behind closed doors just because someone orders in bagels and fruit. Or because it’s at the Blaine House.
None.
And, in this case, this was no ordinary breakfast. This was a formal gathering of a group of people hand-picked to revamp public education — how it is delivered and what it will cost — in Maine.
This group intends to evaluate the current funding formula; identify the causes of increased per-pupil education costs and develop proposals to contain those costs; examine special education funding; identify trends in student performance; identify best practices for classroom technology; evaluate teacher compensation; review the RSU structure; identify government mandates that push up property taxes and identify how to lower those costs; evaluate state funding for the public university and community college systems; and examine how well students are prepared for college and the workforce.
In other words, everything that has anything to do with public education. All of it, heavy stuff.
While the commission was originally the governor’s idea, and it’s a solid one, the secrecy of Monday’s meeting was not entirely his doing. He set the table, to be sure, by issuing invitations to commission members. But it was the members themselves who chose to shut the public out, and most of the members are public officials versed in public access laws.
Despite knowing for more than a week that the meeting would be closed, Sen. Justin Alfond and Rep. Sara Gideon, both Democrats, defended their decisions to attend saying they were certain the meeting would go on without them and they felt compelled to represent their constituents.
Representing constituents includes upholding their access to government, which both Alfond and Gideon failed to do.
So did Republicans Sen. Garrett Mason and Rep. Kenneth Fredette.
As did the assistant city manager in South Portland, the president of the Maine Community College System, the chancellor of the University of Maine System and other public officials serving on the commission.
After the breakfast was over, some 60 pages of documents — including a series of micro-briefings on tax structure, economic trends, current labor outlook and public school enrollment and cost-trends — were released by the Senate Democratic Office.
When that happened, all public and press protests over the closed-door meeting were validated. Commission members weren’t just sipping coffee. They were clearly, actively conducting the public’s business.
On Tuesday, in the face of those protests, LePage, who has named himself acting commissioner of education, announced the executive branch would not participate in the commission process. That’s a mistake.
The work assigned to this group is long overdue and the state must participate in the process or it will be a farce. There is no more important work to be done than to craft a better plan to educate Maine’s children. Tossing the opportunity aside is just plain wrong.
It is also wrong for members of this or any public body to think they can slam the door shut on the public on a whim. With eggs, or without.
In November, we will elect a new Legislature. That body must do what the current Legislature did not: Grant the state’s public access ombudsman authority to immediately intervene when a public body violates Maine’s Public Access Act. Doing so would force open closed doors, protect the public’s rightful access to our government at work and uphold Maine law.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
Editor’s note: According to the Maine State House Majority Office Tuesday, Rep. Gideon learned of the secret meeting on Saturday, April 23.
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