Billy Bob Faulkingham, Republican minority leader in the Maine House of Representatives, during a joint House-Senate debate on the justice system. Feb. 25, 2025. (Photo: Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star)
The national fight over diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in schools has reached Maine, with some Republican lawmakers blaming the state Department of Education for prioritizing instruction that elevates a diversity of perspectives over traditional curriculum, which they connected to students’ poor assessment scores.
DEI practices span a wide range of curriculum and policies, including lessons, books and learning materials that highlight inclusivity as well as trainings for educators in anti-racism. The Maine DOE supports these practices by providing resources and encouraging Black and Indigenous history lessons, for example, and celebrating various languages, cultures, histories, and identities of students and staff, according to the DOE website.
Maine does not have any mandated DEI curriculums or educator training, but the state has committed to the practices, backed by research, since 2020.
The department also offers trainings and resources for educators to implement social-emotional learning — which is intended to develop students’ interpersonal skills and help them manage their emotions.
In a press conference on Tuesday, two Republican lawmakers said schools should shift their focus away from DEI and toward learning “the basics,” which they defined as English, math and science curricula.
“Schools should be teaching these subjects, not all this DEI stuff,” said House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor. “Maine can be a leader once again if we reject the failed policies that have corrupted our education system and move on to things like reading, writing and arithmetic.”
Rep. Barbara Bagshaw of Windham, a recently retired teacher, said she has heard complaints from parents who are pulling students out of public school because they aren’t sufficiently educating their children. She said that’s happening because the Maine DOE seems to “ignore the basic measures of learning and instead, it’s focusing on things that cannot be tested.”
“DEI and gender identity not only detracts from traditional learning, it often leads to kids in schools being bullied,” she said.
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Similarly, Rep. Sheila Lyman (R-Livermore Falls) said in a House GOP radio address that the administrations of former President Joe Biden and Gov. Janet Mills have pushed a political agenda by supporting inclusive education, curricula and offering trainings for teachers to support all students.
“Many Maine teachers do not want to teach sex or politics, especially when it is not age appropriate,” she said.
Lyman, a retired teacher, also said in an interview earlier this month with WVOM host Ric Tyler, that she “dealt with social emotional learning every day” in the classroom, but that she thought it has gone too far recently.
“The level of what they’re bringing into the schools now, that is not necessary,” she said. “It’s not the public schools’ job to address some of these issues … leave the parenting to the parents, focus on the academics for the school.”
Republicans have been pointing to recent national assessment scores that showed Maine students are still not fully recovered from the pandemic. However, experts said that while poor performance can be attributed to a lot of factors, DEI and a focus on social-emotional learning are not among them.
Rachel Brown-Chidsey, a professor of educational and school psychology at the University of Southern Maine who consults with several school districts on academic progress, said this sort of rhetoric ignores research that shows the academic benefits of this approach.
“I think that’s a convenient political argument that has nothing to do with current outcomes,” said Brown-Chidsey. “In fact, I would make a strong argument that if we use effective instructional programs, we would increase learning outcomes across all subgroups.”
As Brown-Chidsey notes, a broad range of educational and mental health experts and organizations have found that when students feel supported and have the skills to express themselves, interact with others and treat everyone well, they are more equipped to learn.
Maine’s poor academic recovery has also been attributed to districts not using evidence-based literacy and math programs, the strong prioritization of local control that leaves curricular decisions— including academic recovery strategies — up to each district, as well as the need for further investment in public education.
The Maine DOE has so far resisted the push from Republican lawmakers, including the Trump administration, to walk back DEI efforts in K-12 schools, citing the Maine Human Rights Act, which protects students from discrimination based on race, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Districts in a difficult position
Last month, the Trump administration gave America’s schools and universities two weeks to eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal money — a move that is facing several legal challenges. In a “Dear Colleague” letter on Feb. 14, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education, warned institutions receiving federal funds against considering race as a factor for hiring, educator training and financial aid. He also directly criticized DEI programs, which he said “frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens that others do not.”
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“In recent years, American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families,” he said.
He said that institutions’ “embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia.”
Following up on that directive, the U.S. Department of Education announced last week $600 million in cuts to institutions and nonprofits that were “using taxpayer funds to train teachers and education agencies on divisive ideologies.”
It’s hard to know how much is spent on teacher training for DEI, or how widespread inclusive curricula or diverse learning materials are in Maine schools, but as of this week the state DOE website still includes educator resources on inclusive teaching practices. That could change as the state reviews guidance from the federal government.
“The Maine DOE is reviewing the Dear Colleague letter and monitoring its implementation, which will include assessing any forthcoming legal guidance from the [U.S. DOE] and its interaction with existing state of Maine law,” Chloe Teboe, the state department’s spokesperson, said last week.
With changing guidance, schools are in an increasingly difficult position of how best to serve all students, explained Steven Bailey, executive director of the Maine School Management Association. Exclusively focusing on reading and math while ignoring the benefits of incorporating holistic supports such as DEI and social-emotional initiatives would be doing students a disservice, he said.
“It’s a difficult position to be in, to make its daily choices in terms of what’s needed today: Is it math? Reading? Or something that would help a student develop more and gain more confidence?” he said.
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