I want to thank the dozens of people who emailed me last week with their personal stories around the potential cuts to MaineCare. Your stories will make me a more effective legislator.
Community Event
As many of you know there are many Maine school districts working to transform their education. In Portland, Superintendent Morse has proposed a comprehensive framework plan to move Portland’s school too. In the midst of all of this, Reiche School this year moved from a traditional elementary school with a principal & the hierchary to teacher led school. I visited Reiche on November 15th and found teachers, students and parents engaged in their school. At Reiche the organization is made up four committees (climate of the school, enrichment of school, instruction of the school and professional development in the school) made up of teachers, educational technicians, parent representatives and teacher leaders. What do you think?
|
| DHHS Hearing Update
Last week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the Health and Human Services joined with the Appropriations Committee to hear from hundreds of Maine people about how the Governor’s proposed cuts would impact them and their families. Nearly 300 people spoke to the committees–and many had to wait hours just for their turn. There was a great deal of heartfelt testimony against the cuts. It was an exhausting and emotional process for all involved. The Governor has said he wants to fast track the DHHS budget cuts of $221 million but this is putting the cart before the horse. Rushing forward without both sufficient facts on the true numbers and time to fully deliberate is the wrong way to go and could end up costing the state much more in the end. There was a very thoughtful editorial on this topic the other day in the Portland Press Herald. You can read it here. Now that the public hearings have ended, the Appropriations Committee will hold two work sessions to debate the measures amongst themselves. One was held on Tuesday the 20th, and the second is scheduled for Tuesday, January 3rd, at 10am. Click here to read more from MPBN. |
Closing
Winter is here! I hope that everyone has a happy holiday and a great New Year. See you in 2012!
