Parents’ voices should be heard
I’d like Bill Beardsley to consider my voice as a parent to become one more valuable member of the education reform commission. As a parent desiring a partnership in education on behalf of parents and students throughout Maine, I believe a parent’s voice, along with educators and community members, provides a broad base of interest for our children’s successes in education.
Without a voice of a dedicated parent, like myself, the commission becomes limited in scope and vision. It appears the very singular voice of an invested parent is blatantly absent. I am willing and requesting to fill that absence.
While some of the educators on the commission may be parents, the educators’ voices are limited by educator standards that have prevailed over the last 50 years. A new vision and a new voice is necessary to ensure the successes of our children in education.
For decades, parents have been held at arm’s length or placed on the fringes of their children’s education nationwide. The landscape of education has been so extremely altered. Parents need to become an important part of the educational equation.
Terri Lynn Pulley
Executive board president
Maine Educational Connections for Children and Adults
Gardiner
LePage’s war on solar
Our governor has vetoed the solar bill, LD 1649. The cost of solar continues to drop while the cost of climate change inaction continues to rise. LD 1649 moves us in the right direction. Lawmakers should not give up on this important legislation.
It’s important to understand that solar energy is a technology, not a fuel. As such, the technology in solar energy and energy storage will continue to advance and become more efficient. I expect solar prices to continue to fall as private sector competition is encouraged and expanded through this bill.
But this bill isn’t just about getting lower energy costs for the people of Maine or creating jobs; it also and more importantly is about helping reverse the destructive effects of heavy carbon emissions on our planet.
Maine will be harmed by a warming planet more than most other states. A warming and rising ocean will have serious consequences for our economy. These changes will put at risk our lobster industry, coastal shipyards and the sand beaches that bring tourists. Maine should be leading the nation in its effort to mitigate climate change because of what we stand to lose.
Unfortunately, the governor doesn’t seem to understand this. But he isn’t alone, with more than 50 Republican legislators in the House voting against this solar expansion bill.
The people of Maine in the next election need to vote for candidates who put Maine’s future ahead of special interests.
Fred Egan
York Harbor
Addressing food insecurity
I want to thank the legislators who voted in favor of LD 1471, Resolve, To Facilitate the Distribution of Food Harvested in Maine to Residents with Food Insecurity.
Maine has one of the highest food insecure populations in the country, with nearly 24 percent of children and 23 percent of older adults not having access to enough food to meet minimum nutritional standards. This is compounded by a significant amount of Maine’s food-insecure population exceeding income requirements to qualify for public assistance. Consequently, these Mainers must rely on charitable organizations for support in securing adequate food.
This bill will fund and select an agency to oversee the process of buying, processing, storing and transporting Maine-produced food products over the next two years to address this gap in services.
Thanks to legislators and the committee testimony of food pantries and nonprofit organizations, food insecurity among Mainers hopefully will be addressed in our communities.
Sean Raymond
Hallowell
Solar energy supports good jobs
As a seventh-generation Mainer whose ancestors settled in Jefferson more than 200 years ago, I have always been proud to call Maine home. My husband and I feel fortunate to live in our home state, raising our son, enjoying the beauty and natural resources Maine has to offer.
The primary reason we are able to stay here is because we both found jobs working in renewable energy. Through our employment we are earning the middle-class wages and benefits our parents and grandparents worked hard to secure, an inheritance being realized by fewer Mainers.
The chance to further those opportunities is being missed here in Maine. Economic planners, nationwide and as nearby as New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont, already are seeing strong growth in jobs related to renewable energy. With that growth comes not just the ability to harness abundant, local energy that sits literally outside our windows, but also to provide meaningful, living-wage employment, allowing workers — specifically younger workers — to remain in Maine.
I am hopeful the solar energy bill, LD 1649, which has successfully passed through our Legislature, will make it into law, and I thank those representatives who voted to support Maine’s energy future.
Jennifer Albee
Brooks
End-of-life decisions
Gov. Paul LePage signed LD 180, An Act to Allow Terminally Ill Patients to Choose to Use Experimental Treatments. We understand that a decision to pass LD 180 may not have been easy. As graduate students in social work at the University of Maine, we value the importance of self-determination for a person’s end-of-life decisions. We also value the independence, collaboration and empathy this bill encompasses. It involves patients diagnosed as terminally ill and have exhausted all other treatment options. It allows access to Phase I investigational medications for qualified patients, the same access of those who participate in clinical trials.
LD 180 provides quicker access to investigational medications versus the compassionate use program and requires patient, provider and manufacturer collaboration for treatment. It also protects medical provider licensure from being revoked, suspended or refused for renewal because of assisting a qualified patient. And it does not create a cause for action toward a drug manufacturer who assists qualified patients.
Although this bill may not promise extended life, the basic human right of intrinsic decision-making toward life or death choices belongs to the patient. They can now take additional steps to possibly reclaim their lives. More important, it convincingly sustains their autonomy within the process.
Ruby A. D’Salva-Bouton
Tara J. Lovely
Orono