2017-02-26
Legislative Update and
Reflection
Introduction
There was no legislative
sessions this week, giving us all a good chance to catch up and forge
ahead. Staycations have their purpose.
Bill
Text can be found using this link called Directory of
Bills
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_128th/billtexts/
Link to
Bill
Status
http://www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/search.asp
Events Calendars
Click this link ot see an events calendar - Events
Or, see the calendar in the side bar to the left.
Reflections
The week also provided a
good opportunity for reflection. I referred a posting to my Facebook
page on how the French have banned plastic for restaurant use. Some
how, I’ve never quite understood how using a piece of plastic to eat a
meal pays off in the long run. The meal lasts twenty minutes and the
plastic lasts 200 years. That same kind of thing makes me crazy
about packaging - my flavored drinks come wrapped in foil and packaged in
plastic. The plastic is seldom recycled and well, the drink
lasts two minutes. I often notice that packaging is in three
layers - the layer it’s shipped in, the layer it’s packaged in, and
the layer that contains it. Cereal, for example, comes in a bag,
packaged in a box, and shipped in a larger box - however, cereal boxes are
largely recyclable and thats a good thing. Who recycles a
fork?
Why we allow styrofoam cups in the modern age is another of
those things that perplexes me no end. For a cup of coffee we
destroy the ozone layer?
______________
Education is a state
and community right and responsibility. Education is a state’s
right issue. For me, education is a community development
issue. In Maine, the role of the community is so important that we
have a “local control” rule about adoption of educational
mandates. Well, most of the time.
Yes, we are about to
turn all that on its head by directly granting families tuition which they
can use to pick the school they choose. That sounds like great
philosophy - choice is a good thing, or so we think. But like
recycling plastic, we allow the near term convenience to determine the
long term consequence. We too easily choose the expedient without
regard to the important. We make our selfish choices and let everyone else
face the consequences.
Of course, given a choice, every
parent would choose the best school. But in that action, the
community looses out and the parents loose out. In that scenario, no
one has to have the conversation about why the local school is failing or
what to do about it. The convenience of vouchers mitigates the
responsibility of confrontation. In a failing school, the system can
only get worse - or worse yet, those who are stuck get worse. Only
those with the wherewithal can make the move, leaving those without the
means - simply without recourse. Voucher systems allow, permit, and
almost encourage civic desertion.
And the real loser in the long
run is the community. A community that can not muster a school
ceases to be a community - it looses its identity and its sense of
purpose. Steal the children and rob the future.
As citizens
who care for the community, and care for the community of the world, we
need to be strong enough to question ourselves and others, and face that
right and responsibility. Good conversation, good debate, and good
compromise are the ways we make a better world.