WE, your Memorialists, the Members of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Maine now assembled in the Second Regular Session, most respectfully present and petition the Secretary of the United States Department of Education, the Honorable Arne Duncan, as follows:

WHEREAS,   local school boards in the State of Maine have always selected textbooks and other curriculum materials to provide the best education possible for the children in the public schools of Maine; and

WHEREAS,  local school boards choose curriculum materials with the guidance of the Maine Learning Results; and

WHEREAS,   a number of states have statewide school boards that select the educational materials for all of their students and publishers of textbooks and educational materials often gear the content of their educational materials to those states; and

WHEREAS,  federal education standards require all states to adopt common core standards and we in Maine are confident in the Maine Learning Results and want to apply our own methods to meet the federal education standards in order to preserve the integrity of the decision-making process in Maine; and

WHEREAS,  the State of Maine has just approved the so-called Common Core of educational standards and wishes to maintain the tradition of selecting textbooks and materials to make certain the standards of education are met; and

WHEREAS,  our belief is that textbook and curriculum materials are best selected by local school boards using the guidance of the Maine Learning Results and the rigorous academic scrutiny of curriculum specialists; now, therefore, be it