Dear Friend,
As the days are getting shorter and back-to-school season is upon us, I hope that you were able to spend plenty of time enjoying Maine’s beautiful outdoors this summer. After wrapping up a long and productive legislative session in late July, I was fortunate to be able to spend some time at camp with my family.
Again students are going back to school at a time of uncertainty regarding the pandemic. However, this year the COVID-19 vaccine is free and available to everyone age 12 and older. The vaccine allows people to protect themselves and their families. I am grateful to all the educators and school staff who are working hard to keep our children safe as they return to school.
Since the Legislature voted on the two-year budget and allocated federal COVID-19 relief funds, I have been reflecting on how the work we accomplished in Augusta will be felt in schools and homes throughout Casco, Poland and Raymond in the years to come. In the budget, we passed measures to keep free breakfast and lunch available to all students and fulfilled our state’s commitment to fund 55% of local education costs. We also passed legislation to protect teachers’ retirement and sick leave benefits from being impacted by the pandemic and a measure to increase wages for career and technical education teachers.
With federal relief funds, my colleagues and I were able to make other much-needed investments in our state’s young people and future generations. We approved expanding access to child care and public preschool by creating a $10 million grant program for child care providers. Increasing the availability of child care in Maine will help parents re-enter the workforce, encourage more families to move here and improve children’s long-term educational outcomes.
I am also thrilled that my colleagues and I were able to make significant investments in career and technical education, workforce training programs and higher education. These funds will help young Mainers train for their future careers and will fill critical workforce needs in our state. With federal funds, we have invested $20 million into the Maine Career Exploration Program, $20 million into Maine’s career and technical education centers and $45 million into Maine’s University and Community College Systems.
Investments in our children’s schools are investments in our state’s future, and I am so proud that we were able to pass all these measures into law.
