Dear Editor:

There was a recent letter from Bruce MacDonald, vice chair of the Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District, “aka” School Board. This letter was titled, “Incorrect and inflammatory.”  

I deal in facts, not emotion, so I’d like to clear up some of his pandering to the MDOE and MEA (teachers union) which are really running the show in Maine schools. 

First, he spelled my name wrong, it’s McBreairty. Second, he had no specifics when it came to “inflammatory statements,” which is the normal response of those who don’t do their own homework. Third, below is the screen shot that I would like for you to include in this rebuttal, as he states, “There is no such overall measure (for math).” Math scores are what I stated.

This data, although a low sample size, comes directly from the MDOE website showing “actual performance data,” for BRHS. For full disclosure, I embellished a bit in my 6/22/22 talk with the Lincoln County GOP members, stating that “65% of Boothbay HS students are below, or well below the state guidelines in math.” For the record, it’s actually 64.3%.

When he states, “Bottom line, our students at BRHS are doing well compared to state averages,” he is technically correct. What I said was that BRHS students are “sucking less” than the state average of 67%.

Almost 2/3rds of the students at BRHS don’t know math and it appears that he thinks that’s just fine.  Rational, critically thinking Mainers do not.  Fact is, students are not prepared for the next step in their education, or career. The entire Maine educational system is in a full blown crisis and needs to be completely revised.  Until then, pull your kids out immediately. 

The “bottom line” is that citizens are paying 62% of their property taxes, totaling $11M so that 2/3rds of the BRHS students graduate without being able to succeed in using math as a critical skill in life.  As a community, he thinks you should be happy with that?  Do not be satisfied with failure, get involved in education now.

Shawn McBreairty

Director of Special Projects

Maine First Project

Host of the Maine Source Of Truth Podcast