. Maine parents who want Critical Race Theory and other noxious species of political indoctrination banished from their K-12 public schools were counting on Republican state legislators to help them push back against the Left’s malignant agenda. What a shock to the parents when those lawmakers slapped them across their faces last week. For the second time in as many years, the Maine Legislature is considering a bill to enact a statewide Code of Ethics for K-12 teachers in public schools. The proposal, based on model legislation drafted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, would explicitly ban singling out one racial group of students as responsible for the suffering or inequities experienced by another racial group of students. In addition, teachers would be required to refrain from partisanship, and present both sides in any discussion of controversial issues.
MDIRSS curriculum director leaves next month
BAR HARBOR Julie Meltzer, director of curriculum, assessment and instruction for the Mount Desert Island Regional School System since 2013, will be leaving that post June 25.
“It’s been a really productive and great eight years,” she said. “Now it’s time for somebody else to put their energy and talents into the role.”
Meltzer said she had thought about leaving a year ago, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided she should stay.
“Now, I’m going to take the summer off for the first time in probably 30 years,” she said. “I plan to take about six months to figure out which of many wonderful opportunities to go forward with.”
Bills would mandate Holocaust and Black history education in Maine
The legislation before the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee would require all Maine public schools to include curriculum on genocide and Black history in their courses of study.
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For Holocaust survivors like Charles Rotmil, the genocide committed against Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II should not be an optional subject in public education.
“We need to know what happened during this period so that it will never happen again,” Rotmil, 88, of Portland, told members of the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee Monday.
As a child, Rotmil was rescued and hidden by monks in Belgium at age 7. He and his brother survived the war, but his mother and sister died in a train crash and his father was arrested by the Nazis and executed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Rotmil has told his stories of survival to thousands of Maine students over the years. He said mandating education arou