Latest news with #EducationandCulturalAffairsCommittee
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Maine lawmakers hope to combat rising student homelessness with new housing assistance fund
In Maine, the number of unhoused students has increased from 2,317 students in the 2021-22 school year to more than 5,000 in the 2023-24 school year, said Maine Rep. Kelly Murphy (D-Scarborough). (Photo by Getty Images) Legislation to establish a fund to financially help students avoid homelessness passed both chambers of the Maine Legislature this week. The bill, LD 384, would allocate up to $750 per academic year to the family or guardian of a student at risk of homelessness for housing-related needs, which could include rental assistance, utilities, critical home repairs and transportation. In light of increasing student homelessness, the disruptions to students' learning caused by housing insecurity, in addition to a lack of available assistance to prevent homelessness, the bill was 'perhaps one of the most impactful bills that the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee heard this session,' according to committee co-chair Rep. Kelly Murphy (D-Scarborough). The Maine Senate passed the bill on Wednesday with 28 members voting in favor and only six opposed. The House of Representatives had a narrower margin, with 81 members voting Thursday in favor of the bill and 62 opposed. The bill will go back to both chambers for final enactment votes. Sponsor Sen. Joe Rafferty (D-York), who also co-chairs the education committee, explained that the bill builds on a pilot program approved in the 131st Legislature, which succeeded in helping more than 800 students. Several administrators who spoke at the public hearing vouched for the support they were able to provide struggling students in their districts through the pilot program, which LD 384 would make permanent. 'It breaks my heart to know that there are students throughout Maine who are struggling with housing insecurity and don't know where they're going to sleep each night,' Rafferty said during the Senate floor discussion Wednesday. 'The bill before us today would continue with this good work by permanently establishing a program so that our students can grow up and learn without worrying about where they're going to sleep. It is the right thing to do.' In Maine, the number of unhoused students has increased from 2,317 students in the 2021-22 school year to more than 5,000 in the 2023-24 school year, Murphy said. Opponents of the bill in both chambers said the intent was noble, but took issue with the $1.5 million fiscal note. Rep. Barbara Bagshaw (R-Windham) also questioned how much the one-time payment would help families avoid homelessness in the long term. 'If a family is already on the brink, this amount is unlikely to provide lasting stability' she said. 'We're offering a temporary fix to a systematic problem without addressing the root causes.' During the public hearing, Mallory Cook, director of training and early educator engagement for the Maine Education Association, cited a Maine Housing Coalition report from 2020 that said a vast majority of Maine tenants only owed between $1,000 and $1,500 to their landlords, making the $750 per student annual allocation in LD 384 critical in preventing student homelessness. 'It's not a lot of money, but oftentimes when we've reached a crisis situation in these families, $750 does make the difference between being evicted or having your utility shut off,' Murphy said Thursday. 'This is one way to prevent student homelessness and to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed.' Sen. James Libby (R- Cumberland) said given the current budget deficit the bill was not likely to be funded and would likely languish on the appropriations table, where bills not provided for in the budget compete for remaining funds. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, all students experiencing homelessness are entitled to a free, appropriate public education. But it does not allocate any money to prevent homelessness, Murphy pointed out. This week the Legislature also passed another bill, LD 747, which directs the Maine Housing Authority to develop a program to provide assistance to homeless students in coordination with the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
In the push for a statewide school cellphone ban in Maine, local control could stand in the way
May 15—Maine's ethos around local school district control could impede a statewide coalition of Maine parents, teachers, administrators and health professionals who want to ban cellphones in schools, from the first bell to the last. A bill introduced in the state Legislature this session would have banned cellphones from the start of the school day to the end in public schools across the state, and received mostly supportive testimony during an April hearing. But at a work session this month, lawmakers transformed LD 1234 into a resolve that would require school districts in Maine to simply have a comprehensive policy around cellphones in schools by August 2026, not necessarily a ban. The Education and Cultural Affairs Committee advanced that amended bill in an 11-2 vote on May 2. "There is a desire to acknowledge that we all think that electronic devices, specifically smart phones and watches in schools, are having an undue effect on educational practice and our ability to have our kids focus, among other things," Sen. Teresa Pierce, D-Cumberland, said during the work session. "But we live in the reality of Maine, of a local control state, where everything really is driven by what your local community does and the decisions that they make." Parents and educators who have long advocated for a statewide ban are getting behind the new measure, which they say is a good first step, but still hope a bell-to-bell ban is on the horizon. MODEL POLICY Some Maine school districts have already banned cellphones from bell-to-bell. Regional School Unit 1, the district based in Bath, was the first to do so when it banned phones last June and put the policy into effect this school year. Now, the principal of RSU 1's Morse High School, Eric Varney, is showing other school districts how they can do it. "We've had a tremendous amount of districts reach out to us and do site visits and come talk to our students and talk to our teachers," he said. "And many, many of those schools are moving ahead with a bell-to-bell plan for their next school year." Portland, the state's largest school district, is in the process of developing a similar policy. For his own school, Varney said, the impact of an all-out phone ban has been quick and extremely positive. "I've had teachers that have been in the business for 40 years say this is the single best thing, best policy change, they've seen in their 40 years," Varney said. Morse requires students to put their phone in a Yondr Pouch, a magnetically locking bag that the school provides for each student. Varney said student focus has been better this year, school suspensions have decreased by 50%, socialization has improved, teacher morale has risen and rollout has been easier than expected. The change in RSU 1 has been inspiring for people like Stacy Taylor and Crystal Schreck, Falmouth parents and members of Turn the Tide Coalition, a group that advocates for less technology access for children. "I'm passionate about this because I have two kids of cellphone age and I'm watching it take over their lives," Schreck said. "It's really a problem and not enough is being done about it." Schreck and Taylor were enthusiastic supporters of LD 1234 in its previous form; they said advocates have met resistance trying to pass policies at the district level, and feel like it's the right time for a state-level action. "Every student deserves the benefit of a phone-free school, not just the school or district that has taken the effort to make a policy change," Taylor said. She pointed to more than a dozen other states that have recently passed or are actively considering similar bans at the state level, from New York to North Dakota to Rhode Island. LOCAL CONTROL While many parents and educators celebrated the possibility of a bell-to-bell ban at the April hearing, larger educational organizations, like the Maine School Management Association, said they understand concerns about cellphones but discouraged lawmakers from overreaching. "L.D. 1234 ignores that local control and the important work that school districts are already undertaking around this issue," the MSMA wrote. "Imposing this mandate will not allow for community collaboration to tackle this challenge." The idea of local control has long influenced Maine policy making, said Robbie Feinberg, spokesperson for the MSMA. It's a general philosophy that local leaders know how to best set policy for their communities. He said districts across the state are already looking at cellphone restrictions, but doing so in communication with their communities, where local families might have a desire to have a more nuanced policy. "The push back on the local level is that a full bell-to-bell ban would take away that local decision-making, being able to decide exactly where phones are an important part within the school day, and where they are not," Feinberg said. The Maine Principals' Association didn't take a stance on the bill, writing that it recognizes the benefits of reducing cellphone use in schools but cautioning lawmakers about the precedent of local control. The Maine Department of Education also said it was neither for nor against the ban, and wrote in testimony that the department understood the complex challenge of phones, but had concerns about the bill's approach. "Singling out phones for elimination may offer short-term relief, but it may impact students' ability to manage technology responsibly," wrote Beth Lambert, chief teaching and learning officer at the department. "Our goal should be to help students navigate, not avoid, the digital complexities of their lives." Taylor and Schreck with Turn the Tide said LD 1234 as amended provides a good starting point for a statewide push to get cellphones out of the school day. They're advocating for passage of the bill in its new form, but in the longer term are still looking toward a statewide ban. "Personally, that would be fantastic, I would love to see that," Schreck said. "But I think this session, this is what we get, and we're very grateful to be even moving forward." Schreck said her coalition was pleased with the Education Committee's discussions about providing a model cellphone policy for districts. They're hoping RSU 1's might serve as that model. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
School leaders want more options to restrain students with violent behavior
Apr. 24—Only a few years after raising the threshold to physically restrain or seclude students in Maine schools, the Legislature is considering a bill to allow staff more latitude in dealing with student behavior. School administrators say escalating student misbehavior issues cannot be properly handled under the current law, but disability advocates called the bill a step backward. LD 1248 is sponsored by York Democratic Rep. Holly Sargent and would expand the situations in which teachers can use restraint and seclusion on students. Sargent told the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee at a Wednesday public hearing that she was inspired to file it after visiting four Maine elementary schools and hearing about instances of violence that teachers felt powerless to stop. "I was struck by the behavior that I witnessed, by the weeping of students, of teachers, who sought me out to speak to individually regarding the fact that they were being bruised, they were being bitten, they were being attacked, they were being sworn at," Sargent said. "They felt that there were no consequences, there was no way for them to get control." Her bill would lower the threshold for using restraint and seclusion on a student from an "imminent danger of serious physical injury" to just "imminent danger of injury." It also makes a modification to allow teachers to escort students away involuntarily, and would expand the incidents schools are required to report to include minor injuries. The bill has nine co-sponsors, mostly Democrats with one Republican and one independent. In 2019, the advocacy group Disability Rights Maine sounded the alarm on a drastic increase in cases of seclusion and restraint in schools, which it said had jumped by 60% in four years. The group released a report that year that showed disabled students were disproportionately restrained and secluded, which led to the passage of a new law in 2021 that raised the threshold for the use of those practices. Ben Jones, director of legal and policy initiatives with the Freeport nonprofit Lives in the Balance, said the passage of this new bill would undo the work that happened in 2021 to reduce Maine's use of restraint, which was the highest per-capita in the country at the time. He said what Maine educators need is better training on how to work with emotionally dysregulated students, not lowered thresholds. "It's very difficult for me to understand why more restraint and seclusion would lead to greater safety for either party," Jones testified. But now, superintendents and education leaders are arguing those rules need to be revised again in order to make teachers' work safer and easier. Patricia Hopkins, superintendent of MSAD 11 in Gardiner, recounted several cases of students in her district who have disruptive or dangerous behaviors that don't meet the current threshold for restraint or seclusion. When students with emotional and behavioral issues punch, spit, kick, pull hair and scream at others, it affects the entire school community, said Victoria Duguay, principal of River View Community School in MSAD 11. "Over time this erodes the sense of phycological safety that is critical for all students to thrive and learn," Duguay said. "When verbal interventions and environmental supports fail, a trained, calm and compassionate physical escort to a quiet and designated safe room allows staff to deescalate the student away from public view." Gorham Superintendent Heather Perry submitted written testimony in strong support of the bill. She said Gorham schools are seeing a rising number of student behavior issues, including many situations where staff feel they cannot safely intervene because of the current law. "These changes are not about increasing restraint — they are about giving staff the practical tools they need to keep all students safe," Perry said. "In Gorham, we always prioritize using the least restrictive approaches. But when those fail, it is essential that educators have the legal clarity and support to act in the moment to protect both the student in crisis and those around them." The Maine Education Association, the state's teacher union, the Maine Principals' Association, the group that oversees school sports, and the Maine School Management Association all supported the bill. But disability advocates, and parents of students who have been restrained, said the bill is regressive and won't improve conditions for teachers. "Deleting the phrase 'serious physical' throughout the statute would effectively permit unbounded use of restraint throughout Maine," said Jeanette Plourde, an attorney with Disability Rights Maine. She argued instead for the expansion of technical support for schools to implement the current law. Ellsworth mother Krystal Emerson said that her son has been frequently restrained at school, an experience that has had long-term negative effects and amplified his anxiety and emotional dysregulation. "Almost two years after that first incident he is still visibly shaken by these events. Just yesterday he recounted that he was scared after being restrained or secluded, that every day he worried that it would happen again," Emerson said. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmakers look to ban legacy admissions in Maine, but some colleges are pushing back
Apr. 14—Maine could soon prohibit legacy and donor-based admissions at both public and private colleges under a bill discussed Thursday in the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, although higher education leaders in the state asked that lawmakers leave the decision up to each institution. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Michael Tipping, D-Penobscot, and co-sponsored by seven other Democrats, would prohibit Maine colleges and universities from considering whether an applicant's parents attended or donated to that college in their admissions process. Passage of this bill would make Maine the sixth state to ban legacy admissions; Colorado, Virginia and Illinois prohibit the practice at public universities, while Maryland and California also ban it at private colleges. All of those laws were passed after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious college admissions in 2023. Since then, many institutions and states have looked to eliminate the practice of prioritizing legacy students, which they say favors wealthy and white students. Three-quarters of Americans believe legacy should not be a factor in college admissions, according to a 2022 Pew Research study. Maine is home to dozens of higher education institutions, including three highly selective liberal arts colleges: Bowdoin, Bates and Colby. All three colleges have said they consider legacy status in some capacity as part of a holistic review process, and a Bates spokesperson said last week that legacy status is a "minor consideration" in the application review process. The editorial board of the Bowdoin Orient, the college's student newspaper, has repeatedly called on the school to end the practice. In recent years, some comparable schools like Amherst College in Massachusetts and Wesleyan University in Connecticut have eliminated legacy admissions. 'MERIT AND HARD WORK' Tipping presented his bill at a hearing Thursday afternoon, where he quoted Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, both of whom signed legacy ban policies into law. "It shows the broad understanding across the country, and across all ideologies, that access to the most important opportunity for advancement in life, a college education, should be based on merit and hard work, not money and family connections," Tipping said. In response to questions about enforcement, Tipping said his bill does not include any penalties, which is consistent with similar legislation in other states. He said the committee has the option of introducing enforcement measures if they choose. Under the proposed law, colleges could still collect data from students about whether their parents are alumni or donors, and students would still be able to write about their relationships with those individuals in essays. Shawn Jimenez, a Bowdoin student and organizer with the national nonprofit Class Action, testified in support of the bill. "I oppose the unfair advantages that legacy status affords individuals," Jimenez said. "Being a legacy applicant at a private institution with a selective nature increases your likelihood of admission by up to four times, even when compared to non-legacies with the same test scores and the same grades." That data comes from an analysis conducted by a Harvard research group in 2023. Jimenez said other states that have adopted similar laws do have enforcement measures, like California's system that requires colleges to report their admissions data to the state to show compliance. HIGHER ED PUSHES BACK Spokespeople for Bowdoin and Colby either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment for this story, and none of the three colleges directly provided testimony on the bill Thursday. However, Dan Walker, a Preti Flaherty attorney representing the Maine Independent Colleges Association, said the association is categorically opposed to any attempt to legislate admissions policies. MICA represents 11 private colleges in Maine, including Bowdoin, Bates and Colby. "While most of our schools do not utilize legacy and donor preferences, some schools use these preferences to not only maintain traditions, but to foster a sense of community and continuity with the institution," Walker said. "These legacy students help build a student body consistent with the institution's history, mission, values, and culture, which enhances the overall campus experience for all the students. These policies help bond alumni to current and prospective students and institution, making a family-like environment." Walker said legacy admissions encourage alumni to donate money for scholarships and research, which in turn support low-income students. He said many schools within MICA are having their own internal discussions about moving away from legacy admissions, but asked that the Legislature allow the colleges to make that decision on their own. Bates affirmed Walker's testimony in a statement. "While legacy students represent a small fraction of our entering classes, we support the principle as put forth by (MICA) that the Legislature should not control or influence the admission process, especially for private institutions," the statement said. Samantha Warren, spokesperson for the University of Maine System, said no Maine public universities ever give legacy or donor-based admissions preference, but argued the bill would be an overreach. "Nevertheless, we oppose this bill, because we don't think it's appropriate for the Legislature to dictate the conditions of student admissions of any institution in the state, public or private," Warren said. "Well-intended, to be sure, but giving any political body including this one say over admissions at our institutions undermines the authority of our respective independent governing boards, and the expertise of our enrollment management experts." Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Maine parents, health care workers again criticize bills to roll back vaccine requirements in schools
Apr. 7—AUGUSTA — In a Monday hearing on two bills to roll back school vaccine requirements in Maine, public health officials and medical professionals urged lawmakers to keep the state's vaccination laws, while parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their children argued the requirements prevent their families from accessing education. The first bill, LD 174, is sponsored by Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, and would restore religious vaccine exemptions. The second, LD 727, is sponsored by Rep. Tracy Quint, R-Hodgdon, and would repeal vaccine requirements for a child to attend school in Maine. The Education and Cultural Affairs Committee combined the bills into a single hearing Monday, drawing a smaller crowd than similar bills in years past. Maine eliminated philosophical and religious exemptions for school vaccinations in 2021 following a voter referendum on the law that received 73% support. That change shifted Maine from the state with one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates to one of the highest in just two years. In 2024, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the state had reached "herd immunity," meaning at least 95% of the population had been immunized. Before those exemptions were banned, Maine had one of the highest kindergarten vaccine opt-out rates in the country. During the 2017-18 school year, 5% of Maine kindergarteners did not have childhood vaccines for religious reasons, compared to a 1.8% national average. But the sponsors of the two bills heard Monday argued that Maine's rapidly improved vaccination rate is misleading because the law change prompted many families to opt out of traditional school and children began being homeschooled instead of getting immunized. And, they said, barring religious exemptions infringes on religious freedom and prevents certain students from receiving a public education. During the hearing, public health experts and many parents defended the state's vaccination progress and pointed to growing concerns about outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases elsewhere in the country. But many parents argued that a ban on religious exemptions has unfairly kept their children out of school and extracurricular activities like sports. Ana Frazier of Solon said she homeschools her son because he is not vaccinated and argued that, as a taxpayer, she should still be able to send her child to public school. "It feels like coercion, and it's heartbreaking to see my child and many others face this segregation and isolation from their peers. Every child deserves the right to participate in school activities regardless of their vaccination status," she said. Dawn Murray, a parent of five daughters, said her decision not to vaccinate her children has kept them from public education, sports, music and field trips. "We live in a society that demands that we accept beliefs and practices that we do not share," Murray testified. "Yet what we are experiencing now with the current vaccination law is not true freedom nor universal acceptance." Dr. Puthiery Va, the director of the Maine CDC, said the bills would threaten the health of students and put Maine at risk of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. Va pointed to Texas, where a second child recently died from measles, and which she said has one of the most lenient school immunization policies. Other medical professionals, like pediatrician Dr. Joe Anderson from the Maine chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the Texas outbreak should be a warning to Maine. "We don't have to imagine what happens when these protections are weakened. We're seeing it happen in real time. Texas is currently battling a massive measles outbreak with nearly 500 reported cases," Anderson said, adding that Maine is one of only four states that has increased its measles vaccination rate since the pandemic, which he said can make a big difference if the highly contagious disease reaches the state. The committee also heard from long-time school nurses like Rebecca Bell, from Casco Bay High School in Portland. "Removing vaccine requirements is dangerous to children, educators, health care workers and families of those unvaccinated, especially the elderly and those who are immunocompromised," Bell testified. In their questions to speakers, some lawmakers implied that immigrants and refugees in Maine are not being held to the same vaccination standards, and also suggested that border crossings in Texas are responsible for the measles outbreak, something that public health officials there have said there is no evidence for. Doctors and school nurses who testified pushed back on that position, saying immigrants and refugees are bound by the same vaccine requirements as all Mainers; anybody newly enrolling in a Maine school who doesn't have the required vaccines, including both immigrants and students who move from a different state, has a 90-day grace period to get up-to-date on immunizations. Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. 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