May 20, 2013 •
AUGUSTA — The Maine House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Monday aimed at Maine’s so-called “skills gap,” developing Maine’s workforce with job-training initiatives. L.D. 90, sponsored by Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland, is an omnibus bill that would establish a uniform credit-transfer system between the University of Maine System and the Maine Community College System,...
May 16, 2013 •
This week, Democrats followed through with our promise to expand health care to tens of thousands of Mainers while making our final payment to Maine’s hospitals. As we make our final payment to hospitals, we must also address the underlying problem of our high hospital costs. Our comprehensive plan does just that by taking full...
May 14, 2013 •
On Monday, the committee voted to pass a moratorium on the authorization of virtual charter schools. The measure, sponsored by Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland, would prohibit creation of both full-time and for-profit virtual charter schools until the Maine Charter School Commission can draft and report out “best practices” for the schools. Alfond, who has...
May 10, 2013 •
This was another busy week for my bills, with four pieces of legislation I introduced having their public hearing. In addition, we had two press conferences where we unveiled a fair school assessment systemand promoted the first-of-its-kind initiative in the Joint Select Committee on Maine’s Workforce and Economic Future. Community Event Last Friday, I visited the...
May 10, 2013 •
AUGUSTA, Maine — A week and a half of tension that began to mount last week with the release of an A-through-F grading system for public schools culminated Friday evening with Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen attacking Senate President Justin Alfond for delaying action on a sweeping teacher evaluation plan that has been under development for...
May 9, 2013 •
AUGUSTA — Democrats introduced their own proposal Wednesday for evaluating Maine’s public schools, even as state education officials announced follow-up plans for schools that got D’s and F’s in the state’s new A-to-F grading system. Senate President Justin Alfond, D- Portland, described Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s grading system, unveiled last week, as simplistic and “a real...