Latest news with #MaineLegislature
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Asian American history poised to be added to Maine learning results
(Photo by Getty Images) Both chambers of the Maine Legislature passed a bill that would require Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history to be taught in Maine schools. The Senate on Thursday passed LD 957 with a 19-13 vote, after the House did so one day prior without a roll call. The bill would require the Maine Department of Education to convene a volunteer advisory committee to collect information and prepare materials to teach this history. It would also require the department to develop a process to enable schools to conduct internal audits of their curriculum to ensure the history is being adequately and accurately taught. Though, with a one-time cost of $15,000 for the department to convene the advisory group and prepare teaching materials, the legislation is expected to be placed on the appropriations table. Bills that land on this table, which is managed by the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee that sets the budget, have already passed the full Legislature with initial votes. However, if they don't have a specific funding source, they have to vie for remaining unappropriated money. Essentially, that's everything being voted through with a fiscal note because lawmakers are still drafting what will be in the next two year budget plan. This bill is one of several being considered this session to ensure diverse histories are taught in Maine schools, though the other bills seek to make sure already required curricula are actually being taught. Lawmakers revisit bills to ensure diverse histories are taught in Maine schools Maine has required Wabanaki and African American studies to be taught in schools since 2001 and 2021, respectively. But, school districts have failed to consistently and appropriately include Wabanaki studies in their curricula, according to a 2022 report, and many caution African American studies could see the same fate without additional resources and accountability measures. Last year, two separate bills were combined into one that proposed establishing a commission on Wabanaki and African American studies but that legislation died without final action. This idea is back for consideration this session with distinct bills. LD 1474, sponsored by Rep. Laurie Osher (D-Orono), would permanently establish a Wabanaki studies specialist in the Maine Department of Education to ensure the standards are being met. LD 1202, sponsored by Talbot Ross, would create the African American Studies Advisory Council to serve as a resource for educators, schools and the Department of Education to ensure the implementation of the curricula in accordance with existing state law. Neither bills have received floor votes so far. Another bill, LD 339, that sought to pilot a Wabanaki-centered curriculum for Wabanaki children attending public schools has been rejected by both chambers and is now effectively dead.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Maine lawmakers give preliminary approval for student mental health funding
One in six Maine children have been diagnosed with anxiety, and 7% are struggling with depression, according to data from the John T. Gorman Foundation.(Photo by Getty Images) As the state continues to grapple with its record of not providing adequate behavioral health support for young people, a proposal to make funds available for schools to hire licensed behavioral and mental health experts has received initial backing from the Maine Legislature. The Maine House of Representatives passed LD 858 on Wednesday with 79 members voting in favor and 68 opposed. The Senate passed it without a roll call vote. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lori Gramlich (D-Old Orchard Beach), will go back to both chambers for final enactment votes. The bill establishes a program within the Maine Department of Education to provide grants to districts that contract licensed professionals for behavioral and mental health services. The funds can only be used to cover those not otherwise covered or reimbursable through MaineCare, the state's Medicaid program. Proponents of the bill — including educators, administrators and medical professionals — say the grant program is much needed as Maine educators are not adequately trained to manage worsening student behavior issues, according to a 2025 Maine Education Policy Research Institute report. Critics of the proposal said it infringes on a parent's rights when their child seeks counseling at school, and raised concern about the limited information about what kind of services would be covered under the grants. Gramlich said one in six Maine children have been diagnosed with anxiety, and 7% are struggling with depression. Further, 20% of Maine children have experienced two or more Adverse Childhood Experiences — higher than the national average of 17%. ACEs include experiences like violence or abuse, and the stress and trauma that accompanies them can have a lasting negative impact on a child's wellbeing, according to data from the John T. Gorman Foundation that she cited during the floor discussion Wednesday. 'Some school districts do offer these types of services in a school-based setting, but the current availability of school-based services is nowhere near adequate. Even when these school-based services are currently available, the funding of these services is so lean and precarious that the future of these programs is constantly in question,' she said, of the proposal that will cost $1.3 million in state funding. 'These kids need help now. LD 858 would be an important step toward ensuring Maine students have the mental and behavioral health services they need,' she said. Rep. Sheila Lyman (R-Livermore Falls) raised concern about what she said was a lack of clarity around the scope of services provided. 'What specific behavioral and mental health interventions are we funding? Who decides what is appropriate for each child, and how will parents be informed or asked for consent?' she asked. 'This bill does not sufficiently protect a parent's right to know and direct the mental and behavioral care their child receives in a school setting,' Lyman said. The Legislature passed a similar bill last year that died on the special appropriations table, where bills that pass but aren't otherwise provided for in the state budget compete for remaining funds. Those that are not explicitly funded by the budget committee ultimately die. Maine has a record of not providing adequate youth mental health support. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state under the Americans with Disabilities Act for unnecessarily segregating children with behavioral health needs and failing to ensure they could thrive in a community-based setting. The state settled last November, with Gov. Janet Mills saying her administration and the Legislature will continue to invest in mental and behavioral health resources. 'We all strongly agree that in-community behavioral health services are critical, and we are committed to continuing to strengthen the delivery of those services for Maine children who need them,' Mills said in a statement at the time. While the settlement agreement required Maine to expand the availability of community-based behavioral health services for children, it did not specifically add any of these services to schools. The bill, if funded, 'would provide Maine school-aged children with support they need by meeting them where they are most often, and that is their school,' Gramlich said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supreme Court orders Maine House to restore voting rights to legislator censured for anti-trans post
Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) reads the censure resolution to Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) in the well of the House after the majority of the chamber voted for the formal reprimand on Feb. 25, 2025. (Image via Maine Legislature live stream) The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted an injunction overruling the Maine House of Representatives' decision to block Maine Rep. Laurel Libby from voting or speaking on the chamber floor after she was censured for posting personal information about a transgender student on her legislative Facebook page. In a statement, the Republican from Auburn said the ruling was 'a victory not just for my constituents, but for the Constitution itself.' 'The Supreme Court has affirmed what should never have been in question — that no state legislature has the power to silence an elected official simply for speaking truthfully about issues that matter,' she said. Libby has been barred from speaking on the chamber floor since late February, when the House voted 75-70 along party lines in favor of the censure, which would have ended if the legislator apologized to the body, which she has declined to do. Libby petitioned the high court last month after the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied her motion for an expedited appeal to end the censure, which she argued disenfranchised her constituents. The ruling was issued by the so-called 'shadow docket,' which is traditionally how the court handles procedural matters and does not involve extensive hearings or arguments, and the decisions often come with little-to-no explanation. There was no opinion issued in Libby's favor. However, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson penned a dissenting opinion, arguing that the case raised a number of important questions about the rights of state legislatures to enforce its rules that the court 'neither addressed nor answered.' She also questioned whether Libby's appeal actually warranted emergency relief. 'Not very long ago, this Court treaded carefully with respect to exercising its equitable power to issue injunctive relief at the request of a party claiming an emergency,' Jackson wrote. 'Those days are no more. Today's Court barely pauses to acknowledge these important threshold limitations on the exercise of its own authority. It opts instead to dole out error correction as it sees fit, regardless of the lack of any exigency and even when the applicants' claims raise significant legal issues that warrant thorough evaluation by the lower courts that are dutifully considering them.' 'Also, as a practical matter, it is plainly prudent to reserve our emergency docket for applicants who demonstrate that they truly need our help now,' Jackson added. Justice Sonia Sotomayor also said she would have denied the application. The Facebook post at the heart of the dispute is credited with kicking off a firestorm that has since led to the U.S. Department of Justice suing Maine over its protections for transgender students. Days after Libby's viral post, which contained the name and image of a transgender student athlete, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold funding from the state for not complying with his executive order seeking to ban transgender women from competing in sports that correspond with their gender identity. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jared Golden may face a Democratic primary in Maine's 2nd District
May 13—AUGUSTA — State Auditor Matthew Dunlap says he's considering challenging incumbent Jared Golden for the Democratic nomination for the 2nd District seat in Congress. Dunlap, who previously served in the Maine Legislature and as secretary of state, said he's testing the waters for a possible run because "we live in an increasingly dangerous world" and "while an elected billionaire (Elon Musk) gleefully dismantling the safety mechanisms that generations have come to depend on in the name of 'efficiency,' Congress sites idly by, doing nothing." "Today, in these uncertain times, we are the leaders we are looking for, and for someone like me, with accumulated knowledge and experience, to step away from the service of my country I feel would be an abrogation of my patriotic duty," Dunlap said in a written statement. "As I have begun talking this through with family, friends, and associates, it's increasingly clear that we ourselves must step up to provide the direction our nation needs," he continued. "To that end, I am exploring a run for Congress sooner rather than later and will continue to gather information from the people of the Second Congressional District to guide my decision going forward." Dunlap did not mention Golden in his announcement. The 2026 election cycle will be a historic one in Maine. In addition to the state's two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is facing reelection and the governor's race is wide open, with Gov. Janet Mills unable to run because of term limits. Politicians of all stripes are assessing their chances at various races and those decisions will likely impact other races. Golden, for example, has been raising money for another reelection campaign for Congress, while also being mentioned as a possible gubernatorial or U.S. Senate candidate. But Golden's voting record and public statements, especially his willingness to work with President Donald Trump and express support for tariffs, have sparked anger from some Democrats, who are eager to see him primaried. His mixed voting record could also make it difficult for Golden to win a Democratic primary. Golden has narrowly held his seat since dethroning Bruce Poliquin in 2018 in a ranked choice election. He survived the 2024 cycle against a well-funded former NASCAR driver, Austin Theriault, who was backed both by Trump and House Speaker Michael Johnson. His seat remains a prime pick-up opportunity for Republicans. Already, former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who has mostly lived in Florida since ending his two terms as governor, has moved back to Maine and announced his candidacy for the 2nd District seat. Golden cited the Republican challenger in a written response to the potential primary challenge by Dunlap. "Matt Dunlap has a small chance of beating me, but zero chance of beating Paul LePage,' Golden said. "But no matter what anyone says, it's a free country and Matt can do what he wants." Dunlap, of Old Town, ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2012. He previously served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1996 to 2004 and as secretary of state from 2005 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2021. He has been Maine's state auditor since November 2022. He was appointed to the position in January 2021, but resigned that October, after failing to obtain the required credentials. Copy the Story Link
