Our values

Extremist attacks on our schools harm our students, our hardworking educators, and our communities. We reject the intimidation, violence, divisiveness, and negativity of those attacks.

Local community efforts are essential to supporting our public schools. We are stronger and work better together, especially to speak out against extremist attacks.

The students in our communities matter, and they need to see us stand up for them.

Student voices and the voices of traditionally marginalized groups should be elevated whenever possible.

All parts of our communities, not just students/parents/staff, are important stakeholders in the success of our public schools.

Meaningful and impactful work, that aligns and supports our own mission and values, is being done all around Maine. Whenever possible, we will amplify and promote this work and the organizations and individuals making it happen.

We commit to doing our work with empowerment and a sense of joy, to remain positive whenever possible and not to be led into vindictiveness.

Public education is the cornerstone of democracy, built upon a foundation of intellectual freedom and human rights for all.

Access to a safe, equitable, high-quality, thriving public education system is the right of every child.

Public education is often at the forefront of political and cultural battles that center on fear and othering certain groups of people.

Public schools should be safe places where every student is treated equitably. Public education institutions must be built on equitable policies, practices and programs.

Public schools should support, affirm and represent all races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, religions, and other traditionally marginalized and underrepresented groups.

We reject racism in all its forms. Racism is systemic in the United States, and our public schools are essential in efforts to address this and root it out. It is important to identify racist policies, systems and situations that have harmed public school students and eliminate them. It is the responsibility of public schools to be actively anti-racist.

We affirm, embrace, accept and celebrate all gender identities and sexual orientations, and we believe that the rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ people are the rights of all humans. Attacks on the queer students harm all students, and we will stand up to these unfounded narratives.

We support the teaching of all history, even the parts that make us feel guilty or uncomfortable.

We support students’ freedom to access and interact with diverse, enriching, and affirming learning materials that both challenge and mirror their life experiences.

We tell the truth about our schools and promote truthful accounts of what is happening in Maine schools. It is especially essential to recognize and share the positive, encouraging and exciting things happening there.

We acknowledge that extremist attacks on our public schools are part of a larger, national, multi-generational effort to defund and eliminate public schools as a whole. We will call attention to this big picture whenever possible, and we wholly reject these efforts.

Public dollars belong in public schools. We stand firmly against “school choice”, “school vouchers”, “tuition tax credits”, “education savings accounts”, and any other systems that take public money meant for K-12 schools and funnel it to private and religious schools. 

Our public schools should be fully funded. We support robust school budgets created with students’ best interests at the forefront, and we will encourage all voters to engage in the school budget process and vote in budget referendums.

We support intellectual freedom for all students: Freedom of thought and ideas is essential to healthy democracy. We trust librarians and educators to develop collections and curriculum that, in their professional opinions, are in the best interest of students’ learning and development.

We promote information and transparency about how public schools work: The roles of staff, administrators, and the school board; how the school budget process works; the public’s rights when it comes to attending meetings and participating in the process; the role of the state of Maine and the Department of Education; and any other important facts that may not be widely known to those who don’t work in education.