Question 2 alled for a surcharge for household income over $200,000 to help the state meet its mandate to cover 55 percent of education costs.
Noel K. Gallagher
Noel Gallagher covers K-12 and higher education issues statewide. Her stories are a mix of breaking news and trend stories. In recent years, they’ve ranged from why college costs so much, the launch of the state’s first charter schools, how a school welcomed a transgender student and why Maine schools have a hard time finding teachers. She’s enough of a news nerd to enjoy sitting through legislative education committee meetings and hours-long school board meetings so you don’t have to.
The Maine Press Association has honored Noel’s work, but she says she writes for the readers, in the firm belief that an informed citizenry is key to a healthy democracy.
Noel is a California native who has worked at wire services, online websites and newspapers across the country. She was in Washington D.C. during the early Clinton years, covering AIDS activism in 1990s San Francisco, documenting the business of wine in Sonoma County and riding out the boom and bust cycle of the early Internet era in early 2000s Silicon Valley. She arrived in Maine at the beginning of the recession and wrote quite a bit about the downturn here.
In her free time, Noel writes the occasional cookbook review, spends an inordinate amount of time at the Portland Public Library and hangs out with her three fabulous kids and wonderful husband. She is not a former member of the band Oasis.
Two people charged with trafficking after meth found at Stockton Springs motel
A robbery investigation at the Rocky Ridge Motel over the summer uncovered methamphetamine packaged for sale.
Mumps outbreak among students at Bates and Bowdoin
The Maine CDC is working with the schools on containing the outbreak.
UMaine System records enrollment increase for the first time since 2003
The fall 2016 head count of 29,465 students is 1.6 percent higher than last year’s, according to figures released by the system Thursday.
Graffiti of Crusades’ rallying cry investigated as possible hate crime at USM
School officials say they will refer their findings to the state Attorney General’s Office after a Latin phrase used by the alt-right was written on a desk and wall in a student Senate office.
UMaine System panel OKs plan for off-campus USM housing in Portland
The move is intended to provide temporary but affordable dorm space in the Bayside Village complex.
Panel urged to boost state funding for school districts with disadvantaged students
Former Education Commissioner Jim Rier also tells the education finance reform commission that schools that add pre-K programs need to get state money faster.
At Bates College, students feel the heat of presidential campaign
A class on campaign rhetoric puts them in front of cameras as politicians, just as the real U.S. election reaches a high level of incivility.
Millions pouring into campaigns for and against Maine ballot questions
Among the major donors seeking to influence voters are the National Education Association, the National Rifle Association and a Virginia health policy group.
In science, students in Maine outshine national average
The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress data examines fourth- and eighth-graders on knowledge of several fields of science.