I am freshman class president at Sanford High School, and over the past four months or so, my class has been confronted with an issue we have never before faced: proficiency-based learning.

This particular education reform has been promoted by out-of-state corporations and special interests like the Gates Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council, as they attempt to hijack our great state and its students’ education.

Across Sanford, parents, teachers and students are speaking out against proficiency-based learning, hoping someone, anyone, will hear their cries for help, alleviate their plight. It comes as no surprise to me that officials at both a state and local level seem uninterested in addressing our concerns. That is why I’m writing this letter.

I am sick and tired of communities being ignored. I am sick and tired of government officials siding with lobbyists and special interests over the students of Maine. I am sick and tired of being forced against my will to partake (along with my class) in a corporate-funded experiment, one in which my academic future hangs in the balance. And, to every parent, teacher and student reading this, please take a stand, not just for yourself, but for every single student who has been subjected to this corporate-created horror show.

Maine is better than this. Let’s show it!

Jacob Favolise

Sanford