Dear Editor:

On June 12 the replacement school charter was enacted by the Maine Legislature, respecting school board member Bruce McDonald’s suggested amendment but during the legislative work session never giving voice to my suggested amendment. I was allowed to speak only at the public hearing. I said that the words “align with state law” should be struck out lest they be interpreted as relinquishing home rule authority and transferring all authority to the state.

Constitutionally a People’s Veto for any Act, bill, resolve or resolution, requires not less than 10% of the total vote for Governor in the last election which is greater than the number of inhabitants in Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor combined but the Constitution does not limit signatures by locality. If Boothbay’s home rule authority can be taken away by such a method, then so can the home rule authority of any municipality.

The Maine Constitution grants the authority to amend the charter to the inhabitants of the municipality but the charter never passed through a public referendum. I, in the status of an inhabitant of the municipality, was not allowed to speak during the work session, so the Maine Legislature asked the sponsor of the bill if the inhabitants had been fairly involved in the process and she assured the Legislature that the inhabitants of the municipality were invited to participate in public meetings, conducted through the school board, an administrative board that functions in a manner similar to the legislative work session.

LD 1786 follows LD 2003-HP 1489. that transfers home rule authority over housing density and community character to the state, the charter for the Maine Space Corporation, which will use the public school system as its workforce training starting in Kindergarten and arguably a violation of Article IV Part Third Sections, 13 and 14 of the Maine Constitution, and the amendment of educational statutes allowing for special schools for which the general rules are waived so that they can innovate their own rules. These state laws were enacted in April 2022, all, arguably, state laws out of alignment with the Maine Constitution. 

Susan M. Andersen

Boothbay