Teachers of the Year visit State House to promote education bill

Sen. Rebecca Millett welcomed Talya Edlund, the Maine Teacher of the Year and Ben Brigham, the Washington County Teacher of the Year, to the State House on Monday. Edlund, a teacher at Cape Elizabeth’s Pond Cove Elementary School and Brigham, a teacher at Eastport’s Shead High School, spoke to legislators about the importance of Millett’s bill LD 1370, “An Act To Improve the Quality of Teachers.”

Millett’s bill would improve Maine’s teacher quality by establishing:

• a new minimum salary of $40,000 for Maine teachers;
• a requirement that all Maine teachers have a GPA of at least 3.0 in teacher prep courses upon graduation; and
• expanded student teaching opportunities and additional supports for first-year teachers.

“Students in Cape Elizabeth and Eastport are lucky to have Talya and Ben in their classrooms,” said Sen. Millett. “With nearly 1/3 of Maine’s teachers set to retire in the next 5-7 years, we need to do all we can now to recruit the best and brightest to choose the teaching profession and inspire our children the way these two do very day.”

The bill is awaiting consideration by the Senate.

Ben Brigham, Senator Rebecca Millett, and Talya Edlund in the Maine Senate Chamber.