I am writing regarding the Sunday, Jan. 5, editorial “You get the Legislature you pay for.” The editorial board claims that legislator pay, before it was increased, could not attract the “best and brightest.”
Oh? When our current governor, Janet Mills, came into office she ordered the minimum starting salary of teachers to be raised from $30,000 to $40,000 annually. Since that time, working with the Maine teachers’ union, she has taken Maine’s education ranking from 19th in 2018, her first year, to 43rd in 2024. All according to U.S. News and World Report.
Given the current downward trajectory of teacher performance, how is that 33% increase in pay working out? Sounds like we are not attracting the best and the brightest. Or are the teachers’ union leaders just making a mess of education?
Let’s face it. Our legislators, on the Democratic side, are some of the dumbest people on Earth. The only reason they get elected is because 80% of our southern district is Democratic. These voters, hopelessly undereducated (see above) are, to quote Click and Clack of NPR, “unencumbered by the thought process” and vote for anyone with a D after their name. Duh.
The Democratic Legislature passed the Family Medical Leave Requirements Act. This amounts to another tax; it will require a massive number of government employees to administer. They will be unionized, and a large amount of their dues will be given to the Democratic Party to win elections. It’s a win-win, except for the taxpayer. Maine’s new slogan: Closed to business.
Harry White
Scarborough
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