Morning Update: What you need to know in Maine today

0 Rose kim julho 13, 2026

A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.

Happy Monday! Summertime is making itself known in full force this week, which means it’s a good time to find a lake — if you’re lucky. Tomorrow’s temps will reach into the 90s, and there’s a chance of showers tomorrow night. By late week, the humidity should ease up.

Maine’s schools are falling behind. We’re spending months looking at how to fix it.

Maine’s students are posting some of the lowest test scores in a generation. The problem has been exacerbated by a myriad of factors, including lack of teaching staff and program consolidation. Credit: Leela Stockley / BDN Composite; Kim Higgins / BDN

About 10 years ago, Maine students’ test scores began a dramatic fall.

For years through the 1990s and 2000s, Maine had some of the highest math and reading test scores in the nation. Students here are now posting their worst test scores in a generation. Reports show that 74% of Maine fourth graders are not proficient in reading. Similarly, 67% of Maine fourth graders are also not proficient in math.

Over the same period that scores dropped, the achievement gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students in Maine has also widened, largely along socio-economic lines.

Although there is no one issue fueling the change, Maine students used to have access to one of the best public education systems in the country, but that is no longer true.

In the Bangor Daily News’ ongoing examination into Maine’s struggling education system, investigative reporter Sawyer Loftus aims to find out why.