AUGUSTA — The Maine House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would provide additional funding and resources for schools to ensure they are complying with laws that require them to teach African American and Wabanaki studies.
The bill, L.D. 2001, was approved 77-54 and advances now to the Senate.
“What this bill does is provide the resources, through the (Department of Education), to local communities to be able to make sure that teachers, staff and students have a robust experience in looking at Wabanaki studies and African American studies,” said Rep. Michael Brennan, D-Portland, co-chair of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee.
The bill would create an advisory council that would assist school administrators, build professional development opportunities and gather and organize resources to help schools teach both African American and Wabanaki studies.
It would also direct the department to provide professional development opportunities for educators and would provide grants to schools to expand or implement African American studies or Wabanaki curriculums.
The bill has a fiscal note of $3.1 million, most of which would go toward one-time grant funding for schools and about $110,000 of which would be ongoing funding for an instruction specialist to provide outreach and support to schools.
If passed by the Senate, the proposal still would have to compete for funding before being sent to Gov. Janet Mills for her signature.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.