Education

Between walkouts over gun violence and rallies protesting presidential nominees, young people have been particularly politically active in recent years. For college students, the push now is to turn that newfound civic engagement into turnout at the polls.

Some Maine school districts have yet to receive funding to help support homeless students due to what the Department Of Education says is a "scoring issue." The issue has delayed the application process for schools to receive thousands of dollars in federal grant funds.

Maine’s School Revolving Renovation Fund was established some 20 years ago to help districts face the challenges of fixing aging schools, which have made tough choices due to years of underfunding. But that fund has yet to reach its financial goals, and now has little money left.

Many of Maine’s school buildings were built more than 50 years ago, and they need a lot of work: asbestos and lead removal, new roofs, windows and doors. But in the face of budget cuts after the Great Recession, many schools have struggled to keep up with those maintenance needs, forcing some districts to make tough choices.

In the wake of the fatal school shooting in Parkland, Florida earlier this year, schools across Maine are taking steps to respond and increasing security measures.

U.S. Sen. Angus King has joined more than 40 Democratic senators to oppose a reported plan by the U.S. Department of Education to use some federal funds to pay for guns and firearms training in schools.

With aging buildings and changes in population, school districts around Maine are planning and building more modern campuses. But some of the projects have encountered an unexpected obstacle: a sharp increase in cost, as competition and a shortage of labor have led some project costs to increase by 30 percent or more.

Summer school is changing — it used to be the place where high schoolers made up failed classes, but some districts have doubled summer enrollment in recent years.

Teacher strikes in Oklahoma and West Virginia this year have put educators in the political spotlight, and some of that energy appears to have spread to Maine. After years of conflict over school funding and educational mandates, more than a dozen current and former teachers are running for office this fall.

With the same energy that she used to bring to her classroom, Jan Dodge is spending a Tuesday afternoon knocking on doors in her hometown of Belfast.

Four months ago, hundreds of students across Maine walked out of their schools, joining others across the country in memorializing the victims of the fatal school shooting in Parkland, Fla. and to advocate for gun control.