Parents need access to reliable child care in order to go to work and all kids need a safe place to learn and grow while their parents are working.

That’s why my Administration is working hard to expand affordable, quality early child care for Maine’s working families.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Look, good child care ensures that moms and dads across the state can go to work, earn a paycheck, and have the all-important peace of mind to know that their child is in a safe and enriching environment. 

But finding child care providers with available slots has been very hard for many Maine families. That’s especially true in our rural communities.

Renee Hayward, owner of Sweet Beginnings Child Care in Ellsworth said she gets calls and emails every day from parents asking if she has an opening, but the wait list is more than two years long.  

Renee said it breaks her heart seeing children with no place to go, parents not being able to balance work and child care, observing she “can't imagine the stress it's causing them." 

Over the last three years, we have taken decisive action to strengthen our child care sector by expanding early childhood education opportunities and by supporting child care workers at the same time. 

We saw this especially during the pandemic, and since the pandemic—a dearth of child care workers and child care slots. And we are addressing it.

When Maine received historic federal funding during the pandemic, we put more than $100 million towards expanding access to high-quality early child care. We have been busy renovating, expanding, and building new child care facilities to add almost 5,000 child care slots statewide. We’ve increased the salaries of more than 7,000 child care workers to keep experienced people on the job.  As a result, Maine has maintained and built child care slots beyond pre-pandemic levels. But there’s more to do. 

Just recently, my Administration received a $24 million Federal grant, and we’re using that to build on the work we have already done, expanding child care access and Pre-K access across the state. 

Using these federal funds, we will expand outreach and programming for early childhood services to more families. We’ll create pilot projects to make Pre-K more accessible. And we’ll offer professional development for early childhood educators and financial support for child care providers to improve and expand their programs. We’ll also use this grant to collect and analyze data we can use to make better decisions about programs and policies to benefit Maine children and families. 

Through strategic investments, we’re expanding access to early child care options and improving the quality of childhood education. That’s good for Maine children, it’s good for working parents, and it’s good for our economy. 

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening. And Happy Patriot’s Day!

WHEREAS, for over a century, Arab Americans have been making valuable contributions to virtually every aspect of American society, including medicine, law, business, education, technology, government, military service and culture; and

WHEREAS, an estimated 10,000 people with Arab ancestry live in Maine, residing in 15 of 16 Maine counties; and

WHEREAS, in May, 1948, the young State of Israel had a tiny population of 800,000 residents, and today has grown more than twelve times larger, representing a culturally diverse population and a unique social mosaic; and

WHEREAS, Israel has developed a strong, innovative, entrepreneurial economy, is at the forefront of scientific research and development, has vibrant academic institutions and stands at the forefront of the global arena; and

WHEREAS, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 2,600 probable cases of Lyme disease in 2022; and

WHEREAS, the actual incidence of Lyme disease in Maine is likely much higher than reported, disproportionately affecting children between five and fifteen years and adults over sixty-five years; and

WHEREAS, there are more than 104,000 Americans, with more than 6,000 in New England, who are currently waiting for a life-saving organ transplant; and

WHEREAS, there are over one million life-enhancing tissue transplants each year that are made possible by the generous donation of corneas, bone, skin or other tissue, and;

WHEREAS, Maine Responds is a public health emergency preparedness and response group which functions as the State of Maine's Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals; and

Going to college can open the door to better opportunity. Opportunities like a stable living that can support a family, but education can also be expensive.

Not everyone wants to go to college, but anyone who dreams of getting a degree or a certificate on the path to a good-paying job should have the chance to earn one. We in Maine are making that possible thanks to our free community college initiative and historic federal investments in education made by the Biden-Harris Administration.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Although I wasn't able to join them in person this week--being quarantined with COVID for a short time--I was nonetheless thrilled to lay out the welcome mat to welcome First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. The First Lady, as you know, teaches at the Community College in Northern Virginia. We welcomed her and Secretary Cardona here to highlight our free community college initiative which is creating rewarding career opportunities for Maine students.

That initiative, which I proposed, and the Legislature passed in 2022, made community college free for high school students whose education was disrupted by the pandemic. 

Students like Maya Eichorn from York who struggled to finish high school and is now continuing her education, thanks to the free community college initiative. She said that if it weren't for the free community college program she would be "aimlessly moving through life."

Students also like Graca Muzela, Washington County Community College's 2022 Student of the Year, who can now afford his second year of school to become an electrical engineer.

And students like Thomas Golden from Biddeford who told the First Lady and Secretary Cardona he's happy to begin his career in manufacturing after he graduates from Southern Maine Community College debt free.

In the first year of the free community college initiative, enrollment at Maine's community college system increased by a record 12 percent. Thousands more young people in Maine are now getting a high-quality education at little or no cost that will allow them to take good-paying jobs in rewarding careers, or even starting their own business. Careers like health care, clean energy, manufacturing, hospitality, early childhood education, computer technology, and of course, the trades.

We often talk about the "gift of a good education," but providing a good education is not simply a gift -- it is also making the greatest investment in the next generation of workers, and in the employers waiting to hire them, and in our economy which will be run by them.

In my budget, I have proposed continuing this worthwhile investment in our students and in our economy by including the high school graduating classes of 2024 and 2025. I hope the legislature will agree with this proposal. I will continue to do all I can to make education more affordable.

I am grateful to the First Lady, Jill Biden, and to Secretary Cardona for visiting with students to learn more about our free college initiative here in Maine and I look forward to working with them to provide more pathways to education and to good-paying jobs for Maine people. When we invest in our greatest asset -- Maine people -- we build a stronger, more prosperous state.

This is Governor Janet Mills and I want to thank all of you for your get well wishes this week. I have tested negative for COVID now and am feeling just fine and am back on the job, full-time. And thank you for listening this weekend and Happy Passover, Ramadan, Easter to all of those who celebrate these significant religious events, have a great weekend.
 

WHEREAS, forests cover over eighty-nine percent of Maine's land, defining our environment and contributing to our high quality of life; and

WHEREAS, these healthy, productive forests provide employment and sustain the state's two leading industries of forest products and tourism; and

WHEREAS, for more than a century, the State of Maine has been a national leader in forest fire control and prevention, and in 1891 established the Maine Forest Service to combat forest fires; and

Proclamation of Governor Janet T. Mills Convening the Members of the 131st Legislature in Special Session

WHEREAS, there exists in the State of Maine an extraordinary occasion arising out of the need to resolve many legislative matters pending at the time of the adjournment of the First Regular Session of the 131st Legislature of the State of Maine; and

WHEREAS, native plants are indigenous species that have evolved alongside native wildlife and occur naturally in a particular geographic region, ecosystem, and habitat; and

WHEREAS, native plants are essential for healthy, diverse, and sustainable ecosystems and are critical for cleaning air, filtering water, and stabilizing soils; and