The best thing the Department of Education could do to improve the quality of education is to close its doors and send back our money.

Maine is on a treadmill of failure: We send money and they send home uneducated children. When Maine’s citizenry come before the Legislature’s education committee to ask for changes, such as yesterday’s hearing on public charter schools, we have been stopped by politicians who are controlled by the powerful education lobby.

Each year we hear the cry for new tests, more money, reformed learning standards; and each year we see that public school students continue to struggle with reading, math, history, science, and other core subjects. We don’t need better tests, we need better instruction.

Now is the time for our elected officials to move boldly. Now is the time to give parents control of the classroom from arrogant education lobbies and Washington bureaucrats. Charla Bansley Hancock