Many thanks to the Lakes Region Weekly for inviting me to be one of four local representatives/senators who will take turns sharing our experiences and informing you (the public) of work in Augusta. This being my second go-round with you, I will skip the introduction phase and go right to my first report. Please see the bottom of this article for information on contacting me including being added to the weekly and periodic blogs I put out. Feel free to contact me at any time.

I am serving two committees in the new legislative season of the 126th Legislature, the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee and the Insurance and Financial Services Committee. This means I am dealing with all things education and the coming of Obamacare. Today, I will look at education in Maine.

The 125th Legislature Education Committee dealt with many large issues including bullying, charter schools, teacher evaluations and standards for our schools. As this new session begins, we have gotten positive feedback on evaluation and standards. We have seen great work by educators around the state in these areas. We have also seen numerous bills submitted to weaken charter schools by the party in power and that will likely be an interesting story in the next two years.

In terms of bullying, I have submitted a bill entitled: An Act to Ensure the Proper Treatment of Bullying Situations in Schools. We did pass a bullying bill last year. Bullying is certainly an issue in society today. When this bill came before us two years ago, I was extremely concerned about bill language that seemed to simply transfer power from one group to another. I fought hard for First Amendment rights protection and after two years, I was satisfied that the bill was adequate to that need. As the bill passed through our committee, I cautioned youthful students in the room (as they were celebrating the victory) that this new law by itself would not end bullying and only they had the power as a society to do so.

This passed bill like many, has had unintended consequences (my new favorite two-word combination). In particular educators tell me that the new law takes out any ability to deal with an incident other than to call it bullying. If a student calls someone a name and when told that was hurtful…apologizes, it is still bullying. If the second student calls a name back, it is now two bullying cases. The obvious second problem in the bullying bill is the paperwork associated with this. While data is an important tool in knowing how we are doing and how we can change/grow, we need to find a balance ensuring that our educators are spending as much time with students as possible.

In the work of the past Legislature, which passed the bullying bill, there was a lot of confusion as to what this bullying bill would do. I worked with many groups including the Maine ACLU to come to resolution. I reached out to them again a while back to get their comments and thoughts and have not heard anything from them on my proposed bill. I can tell you I attended a Department of Education meeting recently that included 10 or so schools superintendents. When I shared my bill concept, they all supported the idea. I have found that most ideas up here are good ones in principle. The work comes as you apply concepts like local control, cost and need to the equation. In my opinion, after factoring theses areas in, many bills should be disqualified. In this case, I am attempting to adjust what many thought was a good idea but has hampered educators’ time with our children.

I have been driven in my two-plus years on this committee to look at the burdens we place on our schools and teachers and to try to take some of that burden away. We have made our schools healthcare centers, social workers, restaurants, babysitters, and many other things. We need to help our teachers in getting the time back they need and want to be used to teach.

To learn more about bills in progress go to http://www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/search.asp

Rep. Mike McClellan lives in Raymond and can be reached at 329-6148 or by email at [email protected].