Dozens of Maine educators said the state’s support for education, autonomy in the classroom and tight-knit communities were appealing factors to stay in the profession. But because of various barriers including low pay, restrictive certification requirements and limited pathways to becoming a teacher, Maine is suffering from the same educator shortage as the rest of the country.
That’s according to a report released through the new Teach Maine Center, a teacher-led effort to recruit and retain Maine’s workforce developed by Educate Maine and the Maine Department of Education.
In recent years, staffing shortages have been a major issue across the state, with hundreds of unfilled teacher, education technician and school bus driver positions (although data on current open positions is not collected at the state level, by the Maine Department of Education or other organizations). The shortages can be attributed, in part, to the financial and policy barriers to becoming a teacher, as well as the average teacher salary, which advocates say is inadequate in the face of rising costs.
“Maine teachers love what they do. They also face deep, systemic challenges in their day-to-day work, for which there are no easy fixes,” the report said. “Fewer and fewer people are entering the teaching profession over time.”
While Maine educators often find teaching to be a meaningful and rewarding profession, the cost-benefit analysis of an increasing workload, expectations from administrators and parents, and the low pay combined with the rising costs of housing and teacher certification means more teachers are leaving the profession entirely. That means the state has to develop new strategies to make the profession more attainable, attractive and financially sustainable, the report said.
Between October 2023 and May 2024, the Teach Maine Center conducted listening sessions with more than 240 educators throughout the state. They represented all grade levels, including early childhood and adult education and at least 157 different schools from 100 districts. The feedback from the listening sessions will inform the priorities for the Teach Maine Center and the development of a strategic plan.
One of the biggest issues for a lot of Maine teachers remains a largely underpaid, stressful work environment with a lack of support, according to the report.
“What surprised us a bit was that there were themes across all 16 counties regardless of where folks were teaching,” said Jason Judd, executive director of Educate Maine. “We heard so much about creating more pathways into the teaching profession by addressing things like teacher certification as well as supporting ‘grow your own’ programs for ed techs and other school staff that might want to be teachers in the future.”
Maine educators discussed the changing nature of teaching, including the growing workload, high expectations from administrators and parents, and challenges managing classrooms with increasing student behavioral challenges.
But new teachers are also facing barriers entering the profession, the report found. Most Maine teachers are still using traditional routes, including an undergraduate teacher preparation program or certification course after completion of a bachelor’s degree. Options for alternative certification are particularly limited in rural or coastal counties.
The Maine Department of Education said it processed 34,794 applications for certification and/or background check clearance to work in Maine schools during the 2023-2024 school year. While those numbers do not represent approval status of applications — nor the number of certified individuals actually working in Maine — more applications were processed in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years than in the two years before the COVID-19 pandemic, a department spokesperson said.
“The number and diversity of barriers to becoming a teacher in Maine is astonishing given that there is such an intense workforce shortage – more must be done to alleviate barriers to joining the profession,” the report said.
The center offered recommendations based on feedback from educators, ranging from quick fixes to large-scale policy changes. One key focus was eliminating barriers to certification, including finding alternative pathways for districts to help ed techs or other school staff pursue teacher certification, accepting out-of-state certifications, and counting prior work experience toward certification.
The State Board of Education, which develops the rules for teacher education and certification, is currently accepting public comments ahead of changes to the state’s certification requirements, Judd said.
“It’s a really important time for educators to weigh in on how they can make changes to the teacher certification system to support new pathways into the profession, because we do have a pretty traditional pathway into the profession in Maine,” Judd said, adding that he believes there’s “an openness to identifying and making some changes” in order to make it more flexible “but still have rigorous pathways to ensure that we have the best educators all across the state.”
Another proposal is increasing teacher compensation, such as providing financial support for certification, paying student teachers while they’re completing required credits, and raising salaries for teachers and ed techs.
Educator salary increases were considered by the Maine Legislature this past year, though measures to increase minimum teacher and support staff salaries were introduced but died when the session ended.
Finally, the report emphasized the need to bring teachers together for peer learning opportunities, professional development and mentorship to address the complaint that teaching can sometimes feel isolating.
The funding for these initiatives would have to come from partnerships between the state, various nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions, Judd said. While it’s unclear how much, he believes that in order to implement the report recommendations, the state budget would need to include educator workforce reform.
“It all comes down to mentorship and support,” a teacher from Cumberland County quoted in the report said. “The Center could identify educators who would like to become teachers and help them find those pathways, and then support them through those years when they first start at teaching.”
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Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
Sitting in third place in the tight Democratic gubernatorial primary, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson has gone off the grid, fishing and spending time with family in Aroostook County for a long weekend with little to no phone service.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, currently fourth but still with a shot to become the Democratic nominee, posted a Wednesday photo with her husband at an Augusta brewery. Former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree headed home with family in North Haven Wednesday after her primary party in Portland the night before.
“Now it’s just a matter of patience,” Pingree spokesperson Mary-Erin Casale said.
After a primary night without closure, several candidates aiming to replace Gov. Janet Mills are playing the waiting game, spinning the results and trying to relax at home with families after barnstorming the state for months, watching late results trickle in or readying to keep close watch of Augusta’s ranked-choice counting starting Friday.
The next phase of the primary marks a lull that could take about a week following an increasingly bitter season on both sides of the aisle. Law enforcement officers are delivering results from towns across Maine to Augusta, where election officials on Friday will begin tabulating both parties’ gubernatorial primaries and the tight Democratic battle for the 2nd Congressional District. The state hopes to wrap up before next Friday.
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The wait has given way to calls for party unity by the Republican and Democratic frontrunners, lawyer Bobby Charles and former Maine public health chief Nirav Shah, respectively. It also opened a door for the only independent on the ballot in November, state Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford. With stops in Waterville and Bangor, the former Republican launched a statewide tour Thursday focused on affordability, Maine’s economy and restoring trust in government.
Keeping in style with his aggressive year-long campaign, Charles has been active on social media since racking up just over 37% of first-round votes on Tuesday. But he said he wanted to “take an unusual moment” to thank his supporters and those who voted for his opponents in a Facebook video Thursday morning. He also said he’d reach out to every candidate, several of whom traded blows with him over policy and tactics for months.
“At the end of the day, we hang together or we hang separately,” Charles, who attended a Thursday fundraiser for state Rep. Ken Fredette’s political committee in Newport, said. “This is one team, one fight to save Maine.”
Shah on Wednesday afternoon thanked his opponents, including former energy executive Angus King III, saying “our party is stronger” because of the group’s dedication to Maine.
Bellows, Jackson and Pingree formed a ranked-choice alliance backed by U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner. All expressed confidence about their individual performance. It remains to be seen who picks up most of King’s lower-ranked votes. The son of independent U.S. Sen. Angus King got just over 8% of votes.
Christine Kirby, Jackson’s spokesperson, noted the Allagash logger won both Portland and Bangor on Tuesday, a strong performance in a race “largely overshadowed by the U.S. Senate race and dominated by legacy names and high profile figures.”
Casale said at first glance it’s odd to be excited about second place. But given the dynamics of ranked-choice voting and recent polling showing Pingree rising “at a critical time in the race,” it means “we are in a good position,” she said. Bellows’ team highlighted a Bangor Daily News simulation showing her as a narrow favorite due to strong second-choice support.
On the Republican side, fitness executive Ben Midgley and entrepreneur Jonathan Bush trail Charles after picking up 20.2% and 20% support, respectively. Bush had recently polled in second place, while Midgley has been anywhere from 2% to 10% in recent surveys.
“No campaign outperformed the polls the way Ben Midgley did,” Brent Littlefield, his strategist, said.
Bush and former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason and their allies spent almost $8.5 million combined in ads. Midgley’s team booked only about $264,000 according to AdImpact, and he loaned his campaign $750,000. Charles spent less than all of them at just over $240,000 on advertising.
Mason, who received about 11% of the vote, said the results marked “the end of my final statewide campaign” in a Thursday post on X thanking supporters, family and staff. He encouraged voters to back U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Republicans in the Legislature but did not mention his rivals.
Charles noted on social media that his campaign has “witnesses, lawyers and tough voter integrity experts working with us” during the ranked-choice count. One of his posts Thursday included images of Shah and Jackson alongside Mills, claiming they amounted to “more of the same.” Bennett’s face was lumped in with the Democrats.
“I’m sure I’m in his [and Democrats’] minds,” Bennett said in an interview between conversations with voters and volunteers at Geaghan’s Pub in Bangor on Thursday. “I’m sure they have numbers that show there’s a good chance I will be Maine’s next governor … because what they’re serving up is just more finger-pointing, no problem solving.”
Maine residents are seeing a lot of ticks right now – in their backyards, on hikes, but also even in unusual places like crawling on porches or playground equipment.
The reason: The two most predominant ticks in Maine, the deer tick and dog tick, are both in the adult stage of their life cycle.
“We have multiple species all active right now,” said Griffin Dill, manager of the Tick Lab at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “It gives the impression that we are inundated with ticks.”
Dog ticks have a broader habitat range than deer ticks, and are more noticeable to humans, Dill said. Deer ticks are a public health hazard, transmitting Lyme and other tick-borne diseases to humans. Dog ticks are considered more of a nuisance than a health threat. While it’s possible for a dog tick to transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, there have not been any confirmed cases in Maine.
Maine reported a record 4,257 cases of Lyme disease in 2025, and 946 cases through June 9, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Deer ticks dry out more easily, so if they are exposed to sunlight and wind, they can’t maintain moisture, which is why they will more likely be under leaves or in the woods,” Dill said. “The dog tick is much hardier, and you’ll see them crawling in open fields and lawns. You could even see one when walking down your gravel driveway to pick up the mail.”
Dill said adult dog ticks will be prevalent through early August, when they will start to die off. Adult deer ticks will still be present for the next few weeks before dying off, but deer ticks in the nymphal stage, which are difficult to see but can still attach to hosts, will be abundant in July, he said.
Dill said Maine gets a short reprieve from ticks in August, especially if it’s dry, but the adult deer ticks will be prevalent again in the fall.
Deer ticks have a red-orange body, with a large black area near the head, and black legs. Dog ticks have a reddish-brown body and legs, with grayish-white marks on their back.
To submit a tick to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Tick Lab, fill out a tick submission form on the website, put the tick into a bag that can be closed or other sealed container. Ship the sample to the UMaine Extension Diagnostic & Research Lab, Attn: Tick Lab, 17 Godfrey Drive, Orono, ME, 04473-3692.
Before going outdoors, apply tick repellant, wear long-sleeved clothing when hiking, and tuck pants into socks, according to the Maine CDC. Once inside, check clothing for ticks and put clothes immediately into the dryer on high heat when returning. Experts also recommend watching for ticks when moving firewood or raking leaves, and doing tick checks, including on pets.
Remove the tick with tweezers by pulling slowly in an upward direction. The deer tick needs to be attached for at least 24 hours before transmitting tick-borne diseases, but not everyone gets the bullseye rash that is common after a bite, so go to your primary care provider for treatment. If caught early, Lyme and other tick-borne diseases can be treated with antibiotics.
Common symptoms of Lyme disease are fatigue, joint pain, headaches and fever.
With climate change, the deer tick has expanded its range, and Lyme disease cases are now being reported in all 16 counties. However, deer ticks are more prevalent along the coast, especially Midcoast Maine.
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