Stop war on Maine's independent childcare businesses!

The bill is bad because:
1. Its intention, as stated in it own project report, is to have an unprecedented mandate to prevent an independent private childcare business from expelling a child.
2. It misses the important opportunity to provide the real service that a childcare needs when caring for a child with challenging behaviors, which is an aide to work one-on-one, or relieve the experienced teacher to work one-on-one, to teach the child the skills s/he needs to be successful.
3. A statewide and state-funded program already provides the exact same service that the bill is asking for more money to do. There is no waiting list for the existing program. To spend more money on this would be a shameful waste of money.

The citizens of Maine need to trust the integrity of the process by which a bill gets passed into law. The people we elected to vote on these potential laws rely heavily on the committee that a bill gets assigned to, to do the work of listening to the pros and cons of the issues in order to fairly determine the likely impact the law would have on the citizens of Maine, BEFORE they are asked to place their VOTE. It is particularly important that the integrity of the Committee process ensures the voice of Mainers in getting a fair, honest, and balanced assessment when there are too many bills for legislators to be able to look into each one before they must cast a vote.

That INTEGRITY and TRUST was BROKEN by the Education Committee on a childcare bill, LD1321 sponsored by Senator Cathy Breen when it passed into law WITHOUT consideration of any opposition! The bill was passed into law without either the House or Senate even casting their individual votes after legislators relied on the Education Committee's report saying there was "no opposition" to the bill, even though there WAS CLEARLY OPPOSITION posted on the State website. AND the bill was passed into law without either the House or Senate casting their individual votes, even though there was no committee consensus that it "ought to pass"!

How did this happen?
1. Only supporters knew when the Public Hearing was held. Proper full 2-week notice of the Public Hearing on LD 1321 was not given to the public. 11 days prior to the hearing, notice was sent that a waiver to schedule the hearing without giving the public a full 2-week notice, was pending and needed confirmation. Then NO NOTICE was sent to the public of the date and time for the Public Hearing! As a result, ONLY supporters, including mostly lobbyists and people benefitting financially from the bill, were present to give testimony of support.

2. Without knowledge of the legislature or public, the Education Committee did not allow submission of written testimony beyond the end of the public comment time, even though this had previously not allowed. Since the public wasn't notified, they did not know when to show up for the public comment, so they weren't given the opportunity to be there and subsequently they were also prevented from submitting written testimony into the official record! Within 10 hours of close of Public Comment, there were many letters from childcare businesses opposing the bill, that were sent to the Education Committee members and secretary.

3. Against all odds, one professional childcare business owner got her opposition to LD1321 officially submitted to the record and it was posted on the State website. However, the Policy Analyst for the Education Committee STILL gave an OFFICIAL REPORT to the Committee that there was "NO OPPOSITION" at the start of the work session for the bill! The work session is intended to work out the details and solve differences in pros and cons, to create laws that make sense, are cost effective to taxpayers and citizens are more likely to comply with. The misleading statement that there was "no opposition" usurped the work session's legislative duty to explore the opposition's perspective on this bill before recommending that the bill becomes law.

4. The Education Committee failed to address concerns of the independent childcare business owners opposition to the bill during the work session, even though the Education Committee Secretary and many of the Committee Members acknowledged getting multiple letters of opposition, by responding through email to the senders of the opposition testimonies. The Education Committee ended the Work Session without a consensus, with 4 minority votes of "ought NOT to pass".

5. The full Senate and then the full House of Representatives unanimously passed LD1321 into law based on the recommendation of the Education Committee that it "ought to pass" and had NO OPPOSITION!

Sign on to this petition if you want the following:
Governor LePage, please VETO LD1321 because Maine citizens were prevented from their legal right to take part in the process of making this law.

Senate President Michael Thibodeau, Majority Leader Garret Mason, Minority Leader Troy Jackson, please address the Senate, in your official capacity, to sustain the Governors VETO of LD1321 due to the fact that proper protocols were not followed by the Education Committee, thereby preventing Maine citizens from their legal right to take part in the process of making this law.

Speaker of the House Sara Gideon, Majority Leader Erin Herbig, and Minority Leader Ellie Espling, please address the House, in your official capacity, to sustain the Governors VETO of LD1321 due to the fact that proper protocols were not followed by the Education Committee, thereby preventing Maine citizens from their legal right to take part in the process of making this law.

Senate Chair of Government Oversight Committee Sen. Roger J Katz, and House Chair Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio:
Investigate the Education Committee to determine the implication of gross negligence for the legal rights of the citizens of Maine to have fair access to the lawmaking process and to determine disciplinary action for individuals involved in obstructing th...