We want Maine to know: we are listening.
"The problems we face in education can't be solved with quick fixes or politics as usual. We need Maine citizens to come together to wrestle with the issues and identify where our highest priorities for action should be, to shape education policies that will impact the future of our state.
The Maine Citizens' Assembly on Education Priorities is a way to do just that. Our job is to listen and then get it done, together."
Reps. Holly Sargent, Kim Haggan, Sheila Lyman & Dan Sayre — a bipartisan group committed to carrying the delegates' priorities into strategy work this fall.
Why does Maine need this Assembly now?
The challenges we face in our education system are urgent—uneven student opportunities and outcomes, a youth mental health crisis, a trickling educator pipeline, the opioid epidemic's multigenerational effects, rising costs, property tax pressures, and the difficulty of preparing youth for a rapidly changing economy.
These are complex, interrelated issues involving multiple systems and several different legislative committees. And they exist in an environment of increasing polarization. Finding a way forward requires us to work together in new ways to find new solutions.
A Citizens' Assembly is an innovative model for bringing citizens together to solve these kinds of problems. It offers a structured approach to large-group collective deliberation, based on developing a shared understanding of the issues and committing to deciding for the public good. Delegates represent a cross section of Maine and can leverage varied lived experiences and practical wisdom to weigh tradeoffs and identify where common ground exists.
A list of shared priorities for action will be delivered to legislators, providing them with the refined public judgment they need to chart a path forward for Maine's schools and system of education.
From volunteers to shared priorities
Seven stages turn a representative group of Mainers into refined public judgment that legislators can act on.
Register
Mainers 16 and older volunteered for the delegate selection lottery.
Select
64 delegates are selected by lottery to represent the diversity of Maine.
Learn
Delegates review materials provided by MEPRI and stakeholder organizations and listen to a range of education experts.
Deliberate
Delegates engage in structured, in-person deliberation to identify the priorities.
Feedback
MEPRI Steering Committee organizations and volunteers not selected provide feedback on draft policy proposals corresponding with the delegates' priorities.
Approve
Delegates vote virtually. A supermajority approves a final slate of priorities. Minority positions are documented.
Impact
The Legislative Strategy Team carries the approved priorities into strategy work with MEPRI in Fall 2026 — with additional senators, representatives, and experts — before the 133rd Regular Session.
Mainers like you and our neighbors.
Sixty-four residents, four from each of Maine's sixteen counties, selected from the volunteer pool through random selection. The process is designed to ensure balance across rural and urban communities, age, educational attainment, gender, race and ethnicity, and political perspective.
Together, delegates bring the range of lived experiences that defines Maine. No special background is needed — only a willingness to learn, listen, and deliberate alongside fellow Mainers.
Phase II of Maine Education 2050
The Assembly is the second phase of a multi-year research and community-will-building project: Maine Education 2050, which seeks to identify what Maine youth need from their education and schooling to thrive personally, civically, and economically in the Maine of 2050.
Through the Maine School Stories Portal, more than 1,000 residents from all 16 counties have already shared their aspirations, challenges, and visions. The Assembly's 64 delegates build on that foundation — engaging directly with what Mainers have said, deliberating together, and developing recommendations for the public good.