2017-02-03
Legislative Update
Legislative Update
Introduction - In as much as it is
possible to report, this was a “regular” week in the legislature as we
more fully engaged in referring bills to committee and then working in
committee.
House
Calendars
Please click on these links to read the House
Calendars.
House
Calendar for January 31, 2017
House
Calendar for February 2, 2017
Bills this Week - No major discussions
in the House.
I did have two calls from constituents about
“bills in the works.” I’ll be sure to keep the following two
links active so that readers can find bills of concern and see where they
are in the progress of discussion.
Link to Directory of
Bills
List
of Bills
Links
to Bill Status
Events
Calendars
You are welcome to check the calendar to the left or to click the link below.
Events
Calendar
This week in the Education
Committee -
In the Education and Cultural Affairs
Committee this week, the most notable activity was on Thursday for a work
session on two bills.
After some discussion, the group voted
to approach LD32 - An Act to Increase the Size of Grants under the Maine
State Grant Program. Essentially the bill seeks to move the
minimum grant amount from $1,000.00 to $1500.00. The bill seeks to
help students in higher education with some of their expenses, and it is
reasonable to claim that the threshold amount should be
increased.
The second bill, LD43 - “Resolve to Establish the Task
Force to Study Higher Education Attainment and Completion Goals” - was
tabled after a long discussion regarding whether the State of Maine should
be setting goals on educational attainment. While we did in fact set
a goal of 90% for secondary education some years ago, some members of the
committee felt that setting a goal for higher education may not be
important.
On this issue, I’d beg to differ on two
points. First, we know that we need a trained workforce in the
future and that without this trained workforce, the State of Maine will
far short of having enough people to do the work by 2030. Second, we
know the impact of post-secondary training or school. The impact is
huge.
See this report for more
information.
Higher Education -
Investment Payoff
Reflections
The value of a public
education is a core concept to the American way of life. That we would
endanger or abridge that right to an education, or our responsibility in
providing that education, is incomprehensible to me.
We also
know that education and employment are changing. If they don’t
change in some kind of syncopation, then the gap in employability
increases. Yes, perhaps unfortunately, the job market for barrel
stave makers has decreased. We need skilled and trained workers to meet
the needs of the future. As a teacher, I always asked “What would
Ben Franklin need to know to be successful today?”
Placing a
person who has no experience whatsoever in the public schools, who has
never attended a public school, and whose children did not attend a public
school, in charge of the national education effort is
nonsensical.
As always, I'm interested in your comments and
suggestions, and please forgive any unintentional typos or
errors.