Your fawning editorial supporting Steven Bowen for Maine’s commissioner of education (“Bowen has right resume for education post,” March 7) only underscores Mr. Bowen’s weak qualifications for this important office.

Given the radical changes to Maine’s education programs he seeks, putting such a gloss over Mr. Bowen’s glaring deficiencies is a disservice to Mainers.

Mr. Bowen’s experience is too little to make him an expert teacher. His further limitation to teaching a single subject at a single developmental level means that he has nothing to say to science, English, and math teachers at any level, or to teachers in elementary and high schools.

He has not taught in years; his most recent experience is in politics among the think-tank elite. How then can Mr. Bowen improve the “connection” between teachers and students? How can anyone with such weak qualifications define and administer standards for teachers and students? Your editorial is silent on these obvious points.

Worse, your editorial omits the fact that he wants to commit Maine to distance learning, a radical technology-based change, which can only weaken the teacher-student “connection.”

You suggest we ignore Mr. Bowen’s glaring lack of management experience. But you don’t mention that Mr. Bowen champions adding a fifth year to high school for an “associate degree” level of education.

This will require a major statewide organizational effort, a very ambitious goal for a man who has no experience running a single school.

Sadly, the points in favor of Mr. Bowen are so few that you must resort to the usual complaints about teacher performance and distract us with scaremongering about failing schools, so we forget that Gov. LePage has offered yet again another unqualified candidate for a vital public office.

Mainers deserve better from the governor and this paper.