Dear Readers,

Is it time to quit squabbling over money and start thinking about our kids?

The Maine Department of Education sent a message to Wiscasset this week. It is a message filled with a spreadsheet of statistics concerning high school performance. Specifically, it was a public report on high school graduation rates.

The bad news was we were number one. Wiscasset High School led the state with the lowest high school graduation rate. Just six out of ten Wiscasset High students (61.82 percent) graduated.

While many Maine high schools saw their rates improve, Wiscasset dropped from 66.67 to 61.82. By contrast, Boothbay Region High school improved their graduation rate from 85.33 to 88.33. Lincoln Academy stayed about the same dropping a tiny fraction from 90.65 to 89.33.

David Connerty-Marin, the director of communications for the Maine Education Department said he hoped the rankings would start a conversation. I hope he is right. 

For the last year or so, many of the stories in the Wiscasset Newspaper by our fine Staff Reporter Charlotte Boynton have described the antics of the folks in the Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit, RSU 12. They have been arguing about money. What is their fair share of the costs. Is one community paying more than their neighboring community? The argument has spawned arguments and studies and lots and lots of ire.

Granted, RSU 12 was set up in a strange way. Running in a squiggly line from Westport Island to Palermo, it looks like something that would have made Elbridge Gerry,  proud.

But when just 61.82 percent of the Wiscasset High School kids have a chance to put on their rented gowns and flat hats for a chance to march up to the stage and get a high school diploma, isn’t something wrong?

In the good old U.S. of A, in 2013, a kid without a high school diploma is basically out of luck. I know, I know, there are exceptions, like one of my old pals, who missed graduation for one reason or another, then led a team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize. And they claim Albert Einstein had a problem with high school too.

But in today’s world, technology moves so quickly. For example, it is hard to believe the iPhone was introduced just six years ago. Now there are millions of them in service. Today, a kid without basic skills (and that means a high school diploma) has a hard time getting a job or even joining the military services.

Yes, educating kids is a difficult task. Everyone understands that. Teachers and principals have a tough job, especially when times are tough, like they are today.

But when four out of ten Wiscasset High School kids fail to graduate, isn’t it time to find a solution? Isn’t it time to quit squabbling about a few dollars, and worry about the real purpose of the RSU – providing a good education for the children.

These graduation rates represent children, our children.  They are our kids, our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, the kid next door, a kid who lives down the street from Aunt Hattie. They are not strangers from Mars. 

They are our kids and they deserve better. Don’t you think?