The Education Committee has scheduled its work session (likely the only
one before they report a new bill out onto the floor of the Legislature)
for this coming Thursday, 2/24, at 9 am in Room 209 of the Augusta Armory
on Western Ave., across the main road from Service Merchandise and at the
base of the airport, if you haven't been there. It is not a public
hearing, so we should not expect to be able to speak unless pointedly asked
a question by a committee member. At the same time, it might be good to
have a large number of people there as a presence.
Whatever bill emerges from the committee could hit the floor of the
Legislature as early as March 3. Other session dates are March 7, 9, 14-16
and 21-23. Again we cannot speak and most of us will be in school in any
event.
Given this schedule, it is imperative to do what we can as soon as we
can. I expect to release the poll results very soon, so if you have any
more polls, I must have them NOW. Current poll results
The next couple of weeks are likely the endgame: committee work session,
scheduling Legislative debate, Legislative vote. King's veto hangs over
everything, so we need to push all the buttons we can find to help
Legislators hear our arguments in order that they make informed decisions.
An example of the kind of thing we are up against: a school supt. in
eastern Maine evidently recently distributed a poll to his employees...with
a copy of Duke Albanese's so-called "fact sheet" stapled to it! We have
bent over backward to conduct a completely unbiased poll, and, I believe,
have only sought to work toward a more effective truth about how to deal
with child abuse, either in or out of schools. Far too many legislators
don't seem to have been able to get past the Department of Ed's twisted and
misleading data and their quietly hysterical appeal. If education is about
bringing reason to bear on complex and pressing problems, now is the time
to show it.
Bernie Huebner
bhuebner@mint.net