Flynn Ross, University of Southern Maine Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on February 17, 2015. Standardized student achievement tests could help us identify and reward good teachers and get rid of bad teachers, right? This is what the U.S. Department of Education is purporting for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education […]

Lisa Moore, University of Southern Maine Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on February 3, 2015. This past fall, we saw a response to the Ebola virus in the U.S. dominated by fear, not knowledge, with one of the most disturbing stories unfolding right here in Maine. Nurse Kaci Hickox had no Ebola symptoms, […]

Sandy Butler, University of Maine, and Luisa Deprez, University of Southern Maine Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on January 30, 2015. Ramon Perez works full-time at a job to which he walks the 2 miles since he doesn’t have a car. Still, his family of four in Augusta struggles to make ends meet. […]

Christy Daggett, Maine Center for Economic Policy Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on January 20, 2015. I did an amazing thing the other day. I picked up the phone in my office, called a hospital on the other side of the state and asked how much a screening colonoscopy would cost. I was […]

Sandy Butler, University of Maine, and Luisa Deprez, University of Southern Maine Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on December 26, 2014. For five years, Josie had been abused and threatened by the father of her three young children. She knew she had to get out. So, two years ago, on New Year’s Eve, […]

Sharon Tisher, University of Maine, and Peter Mills, Maine Turnpike Authority Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on December 23, 2014. One year ago, we proposed on these pages that Maine’s congressional delegation take bipartisan action on climate change. This would continue Maine’s long history as a leader in shaping environmental policy. Under the […]

Michael Rocque, Bates College Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on December 23, 2104. In the United States, formal and informal institutions have been in place to control black bodies since before the nation’s founding. It began with slavery, followed with Jim Crow legal segregation, and has been replaced, some argue, with the criminal […]

Lenard Kaye, University of Maine, and David Wihry, University of Maine Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on December 9, 2014. If you called any of Maine’s five Area Agencies on Aging that serve older adults and ask them what needs their clients face that are particularly difficult to fulfill, one word will come […]

Sandy Butler, University of Maine, and Luisa Deprez, University of Southern Maine Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on November 28, 2014. Lisa and James met working on the railroad. After retiring more than a decade ago, they lived comfortably in a big house in small-town Maine thanks to the pension benefits their railroad […]

Michael Howard, University of Maine Originally published in the Bangor Daily News on November 25, 2014. The U.S.-China deal on carbon emissions reached earlier this month is good news, even though the emission reductions are not nearly enough to preserve a stable climate. The deal calls for the U.S. to reduce its emissions by 26 percent by […]