Investing in the Future

I appreciated your recent article about Educate Maine’s annual Indicators report showing a significant increase in the number of economically disadvantaged kids in Maine schools. As the vice president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, business leaders share with me their concerns about what this negative trend means for Maine youth, families, schools and communities. We also worry about the impact it may have on Maine’s future workforce and our state’s economy.

Access to and participation in quality early education is one of the best solutions we have to help kids overcome many of the socioeconomic disadvantages they face. Quality early education can even change the trajectory of some kids’ lives. This is especially true for at-risk kids. Quality early learning programs help give kids a strong start and foundation for future learning, teaching them the social and cognitive developmental skills they need to thrive. Kids who participate tend to do better in school — in all grades — giving them a better chance to succeed later in life.

That is why many members of Maine’s business community support investments in early childhood learning programs, and have joined an important initiative called MaineSpark, launched last year. A major component of MaineSpark is to make sure that we get kids on the right path early. This will help make sure, as your article pointed out, that 60 percent of Maine’s workforce has a credential of value by 2025.

In order to create the workforce we need, we have to build a continuum of high-quality education, from pre-K through college, from deeper learning principles that build the “executive-functioning” skills employers crave, to quality early learning that imparts social emotional skills.

Investing in programs that help reach MaineSpark’s goal will help create that continuum, connecting Mainers to good jobs and careers in our state, and helping to fill the needs of Maine employers so that Maine’s economy can grow and compete for decades to come.

Peter Gore,

Topsham

Maine Providers Standing Up for Healthcare

Maine is the only state where a referendum has succeeded and passed, to support implementation of the Medicaid Expansion, provided for under the Affordable Care Act. Maine’s Question 2, on the November 2017 ballot, was passed with 58.9 percent approval. Nevertheless, the will of the people is still challenged by the Governor LePage administration. In spite of the Maine legislature voting 5 times to support the Medicaid Expansion (all blocked by a governor’s veto) and now including a decisive referendum, there are still questions about how the law will be implemented. At an informative educational meeting of Maine Providers Standing Up for Health Care, a grass roots group of medical providers, held on January 7, in Brunswick, we learned how the Department of Health and Human Services must submit a plan to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by early April, that will require approval before the enrollment of qualified beneficiaries begins. Expert presenters Elizabeth Kilbreth, PhD. Associate Professor emeritus, from the Muskie Institute at the University of Southern Maine and Maine Representative Denise Tepler, of Topsham, provided education and information to the meeting attendees. They spoke about the provisions in the Medicaid expansion law and how other states have benefited by extending health care to beneficiaries. Leading the meeting of 20 health providers was Dr. Sam Zager, of Portland. Attendees at the meeting included physicians, nurses, social workers, public policy advocates and former State Legislator, Honorable Dr. Jane Pringle, of Windham. A consensus of the meeting was to educate the public about the April deadline for Maine DHHS to comply with the law and to request accountability, including interim reports from the DHHS, about the progress toward this important compliance goal.

We hope Maine’s news media will report about the implementation of the Medicaid expansion and call for the LePage administration to comply with the will of the people.

Juliana L’Heureux,

Topsham