After reading Jonah Davids’ Aug. 16 opinion piece, “Maine DOE should not be stirring fear of artificial intelligence,” I was stunned. My experience attending a similar session of the Department of Education (DOE)’s “Measure What Matters: What Makes a Great School in Maine” in Westbrook, on Aug. 13, was completely the opposite.

Then I remembered that Mr. Davids works as a research fellow at the Maine Policy Institute (formerly the Maine Heritage Policy Center), “a conservative free-market think tank” as Wikipedia describes it. This right-wing organization undermines public education and advocates for the privatization of education and the expansion of for-profit schools.

I watched the same video about AI technology with a group of citizens, parents, teachers and other educators. No one in our group experienced fear or sensed fear in the other attendees. Following the presentation, we met in small groups to discuss some great questions that stimulated robust, healthy and diverse opinions, such as “What do you value about your schools?” and “What should schools be focused on to prepare students to thrive in a constantly changing future?”

It is not the DOE but rather Mr. Davids and the Maine Policy Institute that are “stirring fear” in the hearts of teachers and community members.

Let’s give a big shoutout to the Maine DOE for hosting these critical community conversations about how to prepare our students for an evolving world of work and life. After all, that’s what public education is all about!

Beth Schultz
Westbrook