State funding should be redirected into providing better support for teens and their families and keeping them out of the juvenile justice system.
maine legislature
Committee unanimously endorses bill requiring disclosure of ‘forever chemicals’ in products
Lawmakers in both parties embraced the bill on the same day Gov. Janet Mills proposed spending an additional $40 million to address PFAS contamination in Maine.
Gov. Mills proposes $187 million increase in school funding in updated state budget
The plan would fund education at the voter-approved level of 55% for the first time, provide more money to cities and towns, and put a record amount in the state’s ‘rainy day’ fund.
Bill seeks to boost Maine’s child care system and workforce
House Speaker Ryan Fecteau’s measure would devote $5 million a year to boost training and pay for child care workers.
Maine lawmakers to consider competing recycling reform bills
Two bills have been submitted to create a program to improve recycling and refund municipalities, but the sides are far apart on how those goals should be achieved.
Bills would mandate Holocaust and Black history education in Maine
The legislation before the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee would require all Maine public schools to include curriculum on genocide and Black history in their courses of study.
Maine confronts wide race disparity in health care for expecting mothers
Black women in Maine are four times more likely than white women to start prenatal care late, or not at all, a disparity tied with Texas as the nation’s largest.
Our View: Maine can’t afford to be cheap with direct care workers
The pandemic has underscored that their work is essential, but we pay them as if it were not.
Commentary: Time to pass L.D. 1668 and close Long Creek
It would be a better use of public dollars to invest them in a continuum of community-based care to replace incarceration for Maine’s young people.
Commentary: Let’s do what’s fiscally responsible and will save lives – pass L.D. 1090
The bill will help more people access Maine’s progressive treatment program for mental illness, promoting their recovery and cutting costs to taxpayers.