"It was like sailing into a headwind without a rudder," adds MEA Executive Director Mark Gray. "It was never quite clear where they were going, and there was no navigational chart."

Faced with a structural budget deficit of $190 million due to a sagging economy, Governor Baldacci and legislators brought out their budget ax to the 2008 legislative session and started cutting.

In an impromptu alliance with other groups, MEA led a campaign to slow down the budget stampede and salvage funding for K-G public education. The result was an energetic "Maine Can Do Better" rally of over 1,000 people at the State House.

When the dust settled, the initial cuts to the University of Maine and the Community College systems were partially deflected, with UMS being dealt a $4 million loss while Community Colleges took a $1 million hit.

K-12 schools received an overall reduction in General Purpose Aid of $34.1 million, with $23 million coming out of funding for local schools. The remaining $11 million was cut from bus purchases, debt payments and miscellaneous accounts, including a $4 million reduction in Learning Results monies.

LD 1693 – For more on the "Cliff Correction" bill reducing the early retirement penalty from 6% per year to 3% per year see page one.

LD 1932 – Initially approved by the Education Committee as a technical correction to the school regionalization legislation approved last year, it was amended to include the "Damon Amendment" that would allow school unions in lieu of regional school units. The amended bill passed both the House and the Senate before being vetoed by Governor Baldacci. Once the veto was sustained, Baldacci filed a new bill with his corrections, keeping the issue in play, perhaps until the final hours of the session.

LD 2121 – Supported by the MEA and enacted into law, it grandparents current PreK-3 teachers into their current positions without requiring them to obtain a new Pre-K certification.

LD 2136 – Implements revised Chapter 101 special education regulations with a major focus on the definition of "adverse affect." MEA supported the majority report of the stakeholders’ group which the Department of Education opposed. As a compromise, the definition was eliminated, allowing local decisions to apply.

LD 2174 – Drafted by the Department of Education as a vehicle for the next wave of high school reform initiatives, it was withdrawn in favor of a version by Senator Libby Mitchell that establishes a stakeholders’ group to review reform initiatives and report back to the Legislature.