Baldacci Comes to Deer Isle with Two from Cabinet

Island Ad-Vantages
June 23, 2006
By JONATHAN THOMAS

DEER ISLE — Governor Baldacci met with area residents in the Reach Auditorium on Wednesday evening, June 14. He brought with him two members of his cabinet: Marine Resources Commissioner George Lapointe and Education Commissioner Susan Gendron.

The event, organized by Skip Greenlaw and the Deer Isle-Stonington Democrats, was intended to be a forum on state government issues.

Greenlaw estimated that about 90 people came to the forum, though some did not stay for the entire session. The meeting ran over its planned one-and-half-hour length because of the number of questions.

The wide variety of questions covered topics from energy and environment issues to education, health care and marine resources.

The first question, however, was about politics. When asked if he was “happy” about who would oppose him in the fall election, Baldacci avoided a direct answer by saying that there will be “clear differences” between himself and the other major candidate—who was never referred to by name. (Senator Chandler Woodcock won the Republican primary the day before.)

Baldacci said that those issues involved “the right to decide” and “personal privacy.” He said that people “need to know” what those differences are, and that he is “looking forward to the campaign.”

Education
Many of the strongest comments of the evening were made on the subject of education, and were directed to the governor and the education commissioner by Robert Webster, Superintendent of Union 96, and Penney Wendell, Principal of the Deer Isle-Stonington High School.

After thanking the governor for the changes in the state funding laws that helped area schools, Webster asked Baldacci to take the lead in opposing the federal No Child Left Behind law. Webster said that the state of Utah is already suing the federal government in this matter, and would like to see Maine do so as well.

Webster said that in his view the law was designed so that “public schools will fail,” and lead the way to more privately funded education and vouchers.

Webster also addressed two other subjects, the proposed Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, and the desire by some to include the teaching of “intelligent design” in the science curriculum.

TABOR would “hit rural Maine hard,” said Webster, and would lead to about a seven percent budget cut in Deer Isle.

Webster said that intelligent design was a “pseudo-science” and should not be handled as a local issue “under the guise of local control” because it would divide communities.

In his reply Baldacci said that TABOR was a “meat ax approach” to controlling government spending. He said that it did not work in Colorado, and that the governor there had had to reverse himself on the issue because of the problems it caused.

Baldacci said that he would continue to address property tax relief in other ways, such as the “circuit breaker” program, and would address “valuation issues” as well.

Baldacci said that he felt that the No Child Left Behind program was another unfunded federal mandate, and that he was working with Education Commissioner Gendron on a response to it.

The subject of education came up again later in the forum. Wendell cited the achievements of the students in Island schools in chess, math, and the Odyssey of the Mind programs. However, some of the juniors in the high school were “devastated” by the results of the required Scholastic Aptitude Tests, which they had to take instead of the previously-required Maine Educational Achievement tests. The SAT’s presumed that students had taken courses that they had not yet been able to take because of their semester term schedules.

Education Commissioner Gendron said in her response, and in a later interview, that she felt that there was a value to using the SAT tests, which gets more people to think about going on to higher education. However, she said that it “was always helpful” to hear from others.

Gendron said that her department will be working on “standard setting” in the middle of July, and that she will be inviting Wendell to these sessions.

There was further discussion with other experienced educators taking part.

Baldacci summarized the position of his administration by saying the current system of K-12 education “is not working.” It should instead be K-16, he said. This would involve more early college classes at the high school level to help students be better prepared.

Health Care
Several questioners brought up the issue of health care. In response to an early question, Baldacci said that a program such as Dirigo should be national, and that Maine now has a “foot in the water.” Baldacci gave enrollment figures for the state and for Stonington, which included some who had not remained in the program for a variety of reasons.

Dan Cashman, assistant press secretary, later referred Penobscot Bay Press to the Dirigo Web site for the most current enrollment information: as of June 7, 2006, there were 23 “members” and seven businesses from Deer Isle enrolled in the Dirigo program. The figures for Stonington were 26 members and 10 businesses. Statewide the figures were 10,111 members and 2,321 businesses.

A woman who identified herself as a business owner with one employee described in detail her original interest in the Dirigo program, and the difficulties she had in getting reliable information.

She said that she had been quoted prices that were “out of whack,” and then got calls with “amazing offers” which were much lower, three of which she determined were “not legitimate.”

Baldacci responded by commenting that Dirigo is currently set up in partnership with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a private company, and the state does not have control of its marketing, as it should.

He said that it would be better to have a self-insured program, such as that used by various banks, larger businesses, and the legislature itself.

Penobscot Bay Press later asked the governor’s staff whether the problems described by the local woman were unusual. Joy Leach said that they were not, and forwarded a copy of a study that was done by the Maine Peoples Alliance in February. The study sampled how agents for Anthem were responding to inquiries about Dirigo.

A summary statement in the MPA report said that their study “raises real concern that Anthem has failed to represent the DirigoChoice product enthusiastically or accurately,” and suggested that “many thousands of families…might have enrolled had they been treated and informed properly.”

In May Baldacci issued an executive order to create a Blue Ribbon Commission on Dirigo Health to review and make recommendations for improving the Dirigo program. Trish Riley, Director of the Governor’s Office for Health Policy and Finance, said later that this will likely lead to improved marketing with more brokers.

Environment and Natural Resources
Paul Greenlaw had concerns about some different state programs and their impact on local businesses. Greenlaw presented in detail many problems he has had over the years with the Maine Department of Environmental protection as they related to his fuel oil business.

Rather than responding to specific points, Baldacci asked Greenlaw to provide copies of his notes to his press aide for review.

On a more positive note, Robin Alden of the Penobscot East Resource Center thanked Baldacci for the state’s water quality initiatives, and the support that it gave to the clamming and lobster industries. She urged that additional work be done for support of the region’s ground fish stocks.

DMR Commissioner Lapointe, along with Baldacci, said that they are working to put a plan together with help from the governors of other states with similar concerns.

Kathleen Billings also praised the responsiveness of the DMR, and asked Baldacci to “keep George in there” as DMR commissioner.

Lapointe also reported on the five million dollars of federal money for “red tide” that has recently been approved. It will be used for better testing and depuration projects. Billings said she would like to represent the local clammers as these projects are developed.

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