My mother-in-law's varsity sweater
Go back and dig out your December issue of the Maine Educator and look at what happened in the 2011 session of the 125th Maine Legislature. Study the issues, check out the votes cast by your legislators and consider the impact they will have on your personal and professional life.
For example, if the implementation of LD 1326 is successful, it will drastically and negatively affect your health insurance coverage. Those legislators who voted for passage of LD 1326 were voting to seriously undermine your plans and benefits.
MEA, the Benefits Trust, and our insurance experts believe LD 1326 will break our large insurance pool provided by the educator-run, non-profit Trust into smaller, higher risk plans that will cost more to administer, provide less coverage, and cost employees more.
Nearly 70,000 educators and family members are covered by the Benefits Trust plans and the net impact of the legislation will drive costs up in most areas of the state while reducing coverage. Some towns may enjoy reduced costs for a short time, but the higher risks and higher cost of smaller plans will inevitably raise premiums statewide.
Three years from now, if your health insurance costs more and covers less, you can blame the legislative leaders who promoted it and the legislators who voted for LD 1326.
This is a perfect example of why the MEA and its members must engage in elections and issue advocacy. Here is story I use to illustrate my point.
I used to kid my mother-in-law Liz about her inflexibility when it came to voting. If she had a varsity sweater I am sure it would have a big "R" on it. One day she called me up and said, "Don't tell anybody, but I voted for Al Gore." Liz was retired teacher from Massachusetts and she had another sweater with an "E" for education on it.
Party affiliation becomes deeply ingrained in many of us. But, we all need to have Liz's "E" sweater if we are to change the climate in Augusta and Washington to one that values public education and the contributions that our support staff and professionals make every day.
We can never hope to get all of our legislative friends to agree on every issue, but the Ds or Rs can't ask for our support in an election with a horrible voting record on our issues. Adequate funding, a safe working environment, and a secure retirement, both the Maine Public Employee Retirement System and Social Security, are fair and reasonable requests given our valuable service to society.
If parents and voters want an education system that prepares their children to compete in an increasingly complex world, our issues must be addressed by the Maine Legislature and U.S. Congress. Education must be a priority.
Am I an inflexible voter? Kind of. But, I vote an education ticket first and pay attention to all the other things that matter to me after that. I can usually find candidates who support education and my other concerns as well. When I lived in Lewiston I had a Jim Handy (D) for State Representative sign on my lawn next to an Olympia Snowe (R) for U.S. Senate sign.
We will all need to take a serious look at how our legislators voted before the 2012 elections to see who the friends of public education really are.
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