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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.

Latest
  • Published
    October 15, 2014

    USM president discusses proposed cuts

    President David Flanagan says the steps are needed to reduce a $16 million budget gap.

  • Published
    October 14, 2014

    Charter school committee recommends second virtual school

    The full commission will vote Wednesday on whether the application of Maine Virtual Academy should move on for review.

  • Published
    October 12, 2014

    Barry Rodrigue: The professor

    Going back to college as a 40-year-old, Barry Rodrigue had a plan to get a double Ph.D. in order to land a dream job. To an extent, it worked. But it took a decade of school and $180,000 in student loans to get those degrees: a master’s in history from University of Maine, a Ph.D. […]

  • Published
    October 12, 2014

    Sheri Clark Nadell and Paul Nadell: The parents

    With two sons in college and a third in high school, Sheri Clark Nadell of Brunswick is honoring a vow she made that her children wouldn’t graduate with student debt. She and her husband, Paul, are paying for their undergraduate education. So far, that vow has cost them about $60,000, and they still have their […]

  • Published
    October 12, 2014

    Olivia Conrad: The college student

    It took just one not-so-great year at St. Lawrence University in New York for Yarmouth native Olivia Conrad, 19, to accrue about $25,000 in debt – a serious wake-up call about paying for college. “I kind of understood it … (but) I feel like I should know more about how my college is being paid […]

  • Published
    October 12, 2014

    GI Bill started the steady march to college for all

    After World War II, the decades brought not only wider access to higher education but also new rationales for pursuing it.

  • Published
    October 12, 2014

    College costs: A student, a professor and parents tell their stories

    Debt accrues quickly, making jobs a priority and putting pressure on parents.

  • Published
    October 12, 2014

    Cost of higher education draining Mainers

    Soaring student debt impacts the economy, with graduates putting off life investments as they struggle to repay loans.

  • Published
    October 10, 2014

    USM Faculty Senate proposes closing a campus

    The proposal is offered as an alternative to cutting 50 faculty positions and two academic programs.

  • Published
    October 9, 2014

    Program, faculty cuts at USM headed for vote despite protests

    About 50 students, graduates and faculty members rally against the plan that’s set for a vote Oct. 24.