Governor Stands by His Decision to Oppose Selection of
Speaker Eves to Run Charter School
June 25, 2015
AUGUSTA – Governor Paul R. LePage reaffirmed his opposition today
to the selection of Speaker of the House Mark Eves as president of
Good Will-Hinckley, which runs the Maine Academy of Natural
Sciences charter school.
“This back-room deal between cronies is exactly the kind of political
corruption I came to Augusta to fight against,” the Governor said. “I
will not stand for it and neither will the Maine people. Speaker Eves
has been an ardent foe of charter schools for his entire political
career, then he turns around and gets hired to run a charter school—
whose board is chaired by Eves’ own State House employee—for a
cushy job worth about $150,000 in total compensation. To provide
half-a-million dollars in taxpayer funding to a charter school that
would be headed by Maine’s most vehement anti-charter-school
politician is not only the height of hypocrisy, it is absolutely
unacceptable.”
Governor LePage noted that annual funding of $530,000 for the
Maine Academy of Natural Sciences charter school is an investment
to insure the school’s success. “To have the school run by someone
so opposed to charter schools would be very troublesome,” he said.
Background on Speaker Eves’s consistent opposition to charter
schools:
• In 2012, Speaker Eves voted in opposition to “An Act To Amend
and Clarify the Public Charter School Law.”
• In 2011, Speaker Eves was absent for the vote on “An Act To
Create a Public Charter School Program in Maine."
• In 2009, Speaker Eves voted against “An Act To Permit Charter
Schools in Maine.”

 A news release by Speaker Eves, dated February 6, 2013 and posted
on his website, states it is a myth that school choice benefits each
and every Maine student and that 37 percent of charter schools
actually offered children a worse education than traditional schools.
In a news release dated March 22, 2013 and posted on the Maine
Democrats website, Eves objected to our proposal to provide $1
million for lawyer fees for the Maine Charter School Commission, the
State Board of Education and the Department of Education. This
attempt to provide these legal fees was a reflection of the politically
charged atmosphere between strident opponents of charter schools –
such as Speaker Eves — and supporters of educational opportunities
for all Maine students.
In the release, Speaker Eves states: “The Governor’s priorities are
out of step with the parents, students, and teachers of Maine.”