Educators and advocates urged the Legislature’s education and cultural affairs committee to support 50% tuition vouchers for UMaine System schools for some Maine residents.
Lana Cohen
Lana covers education for the Portland Press Herald. She joins the Press Herald from VTDigger, where she covered Chittenden County, Vermont’s population center. Previously she was a Report for America fellow in Mendocino County, covering environmental news for a digital outlet and a public radio station. She also reported on the environment for digital news outlet, WhoWhatWhy. In her spare time Lana enjoys hiking with her Goldendoodle, Rigby, running, surfing and baking.
Free community college program pulls students from UMaine System
A Maine lawmaker would expand upon the free tuition initiative to help prevent the enrollment declines at the state’s public universities from getting any worse.
Maine may lose federal funds over student testing shift
The U.S. Department of Education says the state has not conducted the legally required student assessments to receive funding for low-income students, but state officials are challenging the decision.
School librarians fight legislation to ban books considered obscene
A bill to make public schools subject to Maine’s anti-obscenity law has inspired librarians to organize to protect access to books and other materials.
At UMaine, back on campus but still online for many classes
Some learners chafe at lost in-class experiences; others appreciate remote flexibility. For now, the university system doesn’t seem ready to reverse its pandemic-era shift.
Lawsuit indicates former Bowdoin trustee had close relationship with sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein
Former Bowdoin College trustee James “Jes” Staley exchanged more than 1,000 emails with late sex-trafficker and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including some with sexual content and photos of young women, according to newly unredacted portions of a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. filed in federal court. Staley is a Bowdoin alum who has lived […]
Maine public school enrollment makes small rebound
The increase for a second year in a row followed years of steady decline and a significant drop at the beginning of the pandemic.
National group threatens lawsuit against Maine school district over gender policy
The Goldwater Institute says the Damariscotta-area district is guilty of violating parental rights because it did not tell a student’s mother that her child wanted to be identified as a boy instead of a girl.
In gender clash, Maine schools caught between parents, kids
The handling of gender identity at public schools has emerged as a new front in the culture war, pitting children’s privacy against some parents who fear educators are cutting them out of key conversations.
UMaine Orono dips into reserves amid declining enrollment
The UMaine System board allows the state’s flagship university to pull $5.7 million from savings to help close a $17 million budget gap.