It’s official. I’ve been pinned! This past week I joined the Saco Bay Rotary Club as their newest and youngest member.
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As some of you may have noticed, our legislative office is bare. No signs, no window decals, no lights on and no flag out to alert you we are there.
In case this sounds like goodbye, we aren’t going anywhere, but we have moved out of our office. Sen. Linda Valentino and I spent almost four years at our Main Street office sandwiched between the post office and Rapid Rays. It was great to be part of a Main Street community full of festivals, parades and people. Some might call it a simple piece of paper, but it’s often needed to even be considered for employment at many places of business. Yes, a college degree. The path to earn one, though, is paved with financial turbulence with the cost ranging anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We hear all the time about student loan debt and being able to afford college; together we can do something about it. It might seem like a drop in the bucket, but scholarships can be a great way to help alleviate some of the pressures put on students and families in the pursuit of educational excellence and job preparedness. The number of unsolved murders or cold cases in Maine is as high as 120 or more. On average, 20 to 25 homicides occur annually, with about 90 percent resulting in arrests. That other 10 percent of homicides that go without arrests, without a trial, without an opportunity to hold someone accountable, without details of what exactly happened, is inexcusable, and I, for one, am embarrassed as a state elected official that it’s been allowed to happen under our watch.
That’s why Sen. Linda Valentino, Rep. Barry Hobbins and I introduced, LD 1121, An Act To Fund the Cold Case Homicide Unit in the Department of the Attorney General. Is it possible to sum up a student with one grade from a single class? Could you sum up a teacher’s effectiveness by just the standardized test scores of the students? Can you sum up a school in one letter grade? You can’t. Students are more than a test score. Teachers are more than test score. Our schools are more than a single letter grade. There should be a wide variety of metrics used to determine the effectiveness of a particular school, the success of a given student, and the educators that are on the frontlines.
A Republican senator who is also the assistant majority leader of the Senate Republicans, and a Democratic representative, who is also president of Maine Young Democrats, are coming together to pass a bill giving the public more power and increase accountability in government.
No, this is not a dream. It’s happening right now. I’m working across the aisle with Sen. Andre Cushing on a bill, LD 957, a resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Maine to provide for the popular election of the attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer of state. Let me ask you something. Can you go without a meal? How long can you hold it before you need to use the restroom? Throughout your day, do you ever take a quick break?
Gov. Paul LePage addressed a joint session of the Legislature to lay out his priorities, better known as the State of the State address. There were very few surprises, if any at all. The governor spent a majority of the time discussing his tax reform plan, a plan that leaves many questions to its effectiveness for middle class families.
With all of the national headlines involving police shootings and outrage surrounding police practices, it’s important to reflect on the job our own brave men and women in uniform perform each and every day.
The speaker of the House and the president of the Senate have made their appointments to legislative committees. Committees serve an important purpose in the governance of our state. In fact, it is where the bulk of the work takes place. Each committee oversees a particular topic of jurisdiction, such as education and environment, for instance.
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Beyond the HeadlinesWeekly Column featured in The Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier Newspaper by Rep. Justin Chenette of Saco Archives
September 2021
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