Improve school security
Earlier this year, on behalf of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, I worked with Rep. Patrick Corey to introduce LD 1883, a $20 million bond to strengthen school security.
In January 2014, the Department of Education released a partial report on school security, which was initiated by legislation I helped draft. The study revealed serious security problems with public schools across the state and made security improvement recommendations. Since that study’s release, schools have made various improvements based on their ability to pay. Wealthier districts are in a more advanced position, while poorer school districts still need help.
Many of these “schools in need” are older and were designed to be welcoming community centers, not fortresses. Many new schools, particularly in urban centers, have security built into their design and have full-time security personnel. So, only a portion of schools will apply for the new bond money if it becomes available.
The money sought in LD 1883 will be distributed through an application process that prioritizes individual school security needs within the School Revolving Renovation Fund. In 2017, 81 schools applied for funds through this program; 40 were successful. We have no reason to believe this number will change significantly; in addition, the bond language allows additional municipal and federal funding. If that is not enough, we will seek another bond next year.
SAM and Rep. Corey have introduced a reasonable policy to upgrade school security in Maine’s most vulnerable schools. Unfortunately, it is getting lost in one dimensional election year grandstanding. Let’s hope some in the legislature are listening.
David Trahan
Executive director
Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine
Waldoboro
Support ‘red flag’ bill
The NRA lobbyists believe that more guns and looser gun laws will make a country safer. By that logic, the U.S. should be the safest country in the world. Instead, our children are more likely to die from gun assaults, compared with other Western countries, according to David Hemenway of Harvard.
There is no other issue that Americans agree on more than stricter gun laws. Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, surveyed NRA members and found that 74 percent supported background checks for all gun sales. In a Public Policy Polling survey, a majority of gun owners believe the NRA is out of touch with them, and many believe the association has lost its way altogether.
Enacting the seat belt law alone did not prevent all auto fatalities. We needed airbags, speed limits and rumble strips to make driving safer. No one bill will end mass shootings in America. A good place to start is a red flag bill, which is in the State House right now. It is LD 1884.
This bill allows family members or law enforcement officers to petition a court to remove firearms from a person who is a danger to themselves or others. Red flag laws have robust due process protections. Many agree that the suspect in the Parkland shooting was a danger to others. His mother contacted the police on many occasions, but law enforcement could do nothing. Please call your senator and representative and ask them to vote yes on LD 1884.
Samantha Le
Bangor
Support ranked-choice voting
Ranked-choice voting has been supported by two large efforts of Maine residents and is going to be used in the upcoming June primaries. Yet, a minority opposes it and is determined to undermine this solution to a serious Maine problem any way they can.
What is the problem to be solved? It is the increasing ability of far-left and far-right minorities to hijack the governorship and other state offices using divide-and-conquer tactics made effective by our present election-by-plurality rule. Those who especially want the ranked-choice voting reform are Maine’s registered voters who are independents, turned off by the parties’ increased partisanship and unwillingness to compromise. The Maine preference is always for getting along and talking through our disagreements in order to arrive at effective solutions.
I believe ranked-choice voting can discourage personal attacks and vituperation and be a first step to reversing the nationwide trend of bitter, ineffective partisanship. Ranked-choice voting opponents keep calling it too complicated and unworkable and keep trying to turn it into yet another aspect of the partisan divide. It is not complicated; it is how sensible people make important decisions every day. It is not unworkable, unless its partisan opponents are able to succeed in their current attempts to litigate it to death.
I urge all responsible Mainers to be informed about ranked-choice voting and to be aware of the efforts to subvert it.
Charlie Graham
Camden