As I write this, I am in Florida arranging for care for my mother who is in need of daily nursing visits. In arranging for her care, my sisters and I are dealing with agencies licensed by the state to deliver it, and since we can’t always be here, we are relieved that state approval requires fingerprinting of employees. We take comfort in knowing that no one who has been convicted of crimes in other states would compromise my mom’s safety. Safety is, after all, one of the purposes of government on which we depend.

It would seem logical that children in child care facilities in our state would need the same kinds of protection from people who may want to harm them. After all, we know from the voices of Maine business leaders, economists, chiefs of police and retired generals that Maine’s prosperous economic future depends on how well we build the brains of our youngest residents in their earliest years.

And if we want a strong future workforce, creating their brains is like building a house. Getting it right the first time is less costly than fixing the poorly done wiring, plumbing and roofing. Because one of the prerequisites for building healthy brains is making sure children feel safe in their surroundings, we all have a stake in how well Maine is doing in making sure our children are safely cared for.

I’m guessing you would be surprised to know that the governor and the commissioner of Health and Human Services don’t agree that it’s our state’s responsibility to make sure children are safe from child care workers. They have decided to submit plans to the federal government for the state’s child development funding that lacks the basic protections of fingerprinting for child care workers. The governor is refusing to participate in fingerprinting that would make sure child care workers do not have arrest records in other states.

Even though I am writing this on April Fools’ Day, I’m not joking. Nor is it a joke that the state will forego $800,000 in federal child care funds because we refuse to fingerprint child care workers.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the governor has this little concern for children’s well-being. During his five years in office, more Maine children have fallen into extreme poverty and are hungry. They have less access to medical care, too, and their parents have fewer resources for dealing with their children’s special needs.

Since 48 states are requiring fingerprinting, the governor is apparently engaged in a race to the bottom when it comes to caring for our children, who are, not to put too fine a point on it, our future workforce.

I’ve heard many people who support the governor say that they like him because he’s plainspoken. What I want to ask the people who say that is, other than speaking your thoughts, do you have young children or older relatives needing to feel safe when they are in child care or in nursing facilities? Do you think that withholding bond funds for safe elderly housing is a good thing, even though 70 percent of voters said “yes” for that bond? Do you teach your children that bullying those weaker than they are is wrong but think that it’s OK for the governor to bully legislators who want to provide protections for our loved ones?

There are countless people in this state who believe that withholding funds from the mentally ill, the young and the old is a bad idea. There are countless legislators who believe that too, but who feel bullied by the governor into supporting his actions and into sustaining his vetoes.

While I’m dealing with my mom — who thinks there are people out to get her — I can at least be assured that the people who are caring for her have had their fingerprints checked in a national database. We should all feel assured that protection is available for our state’s youngest children.

The Legislature will soon be voting on a bill to fix this situation.

I expect our legislators will have the backbone necessary to do the right thing, but you might want to give yours a call to make sure their backbones are strong enough to resist the governor’s pressure, and to put our children’s rights to safety ahead of some individuals’ perceived rights of privacy.

Karen Heck is a longtime resident and former mayor of Waterville.

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