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Course Change On Vaccination For Maine Educators Came After Substantial Backlash

Robert F. Bukaty
/
Associated Press
In this Monday, Dec. 8, 2020 photo, a fourth grade class uses upside-down buckets for seats as they study outside at the Gerald Talbot School, in Portland, Maine.

Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday announced that school staff and child care providers will now be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility, a significant change to the age-based inoculation scheme that she rolled out just five days earlier.

The announcement by Mills came a day after President Joe Biden directed states to prioritize teachers and school staff in their vaccination programs. The president’s decision has already been framed by some Republicans as kowtowing to the powerful teachers unions that helped him get elected. Local affiliates of those same unions boosted Mills’ gubernatorial bid in 2018 and are expected to do so again if she seeks reelection in 2022.

Mills has been under pressure from the Maine Education Association to prioritize teachers for weeks, just as Biden has been by the MEA’s parent organization and affiliates prior to his directive on Tuesday.

The MEA’s frustration with Mills was clear in a message union president Grace Leavitt sent to members on Monday. Leavitt formalized her complaints in a letter that urged the governor to retool her age-based vaccination plan, which included a so-called “fast lane” for educators when their age category received its turn.

(Disclosure: Most of Maine Public’s news staff is represented by the MEA — but are not considered educators and are not included in the vaccination prioritization plan authorized by the governor.)

“While MEA understands there is a supply issue and as a state we must roll out the vaccine in a way that will save the most lives, the Union also believes that if the prioritized rollout for age-eligible educators does not go as planned the MEA will advocate using all possible avenues for prioritization for all its members immediately,” Leavitt wrote to Mills. “I again request that you and I meet as soon as possible. More frequent and open communication between you and the MEA would go a long way toward helping us all get through this.”

Leavitt’s letter and her message to members indicate that the union has had some difficulty getting an audience with Mills. However, the MEA last week also touted its advocacy efforts when Mills included the teacher fast lane in her vaccination plan; it also noted that the governor’s plan aligned with a scientific explanation by Maine Center for Disease Control director Dr. Nirav Shah, who had shown that mortality from COVID-19 increases with age.

Nevertheless, the backlash from educators was fierce. News outlets, including Maine Public, were preparing stories highlighting their exasperation the day after Biden’s directive. Those stories were quickly updated after Mills’ announcement that teachers will now receive priority regardless of their age.

The whiplash of changes by Mills could fuel claims by Republicans that the governor caved to the demands of the MEA, a major financial booster of Democratic politicians in Maine. Such assertions will likely mirror the response to Biden’s directive to prioritize teachers for vaccination.

Prior to the president’s announcement, the White House communications staff had been tiptoeing around newly anointed U.S. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s statement in early February that vaccination of teachers “is not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools” as long as other safety measures are followed, such as physical distancing and masking.

The White House would later describe Walensky’s comment as one made in her “personal capacity” and not indicative of the Biden administration’s position.

For its part, the Mills administration isn’t backing away from its assertion last week that the original age-based plan is based on science. The governor’s statement also made it clear that its plan to vaccinate people ages 60 and older could slow down if vaccine supply from the federal government cannot increase to accommodate the estimated 52,400 educators and child care workers who are now at the front of the inoculation line.

Biden predicted earlier this week that vaccine production is expected to dramatically increase to the point that all adults will be inoculated by the end of May. If the president’s forecast comes to fruition, the political impact from changing vaccination priorities could be short-lived for Republicans hoping to make the bumping of teachers a wedge issue.

Another possible mitigating factor: Republicans have made the resumption of in-person learning at schools a priority. Thirty states, including several run by GOP governors, had already been prioritizing teachers in their vaccination plans prior to Biden’s directive, which prompted immediate updates in several of the states that had not been, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington.

Golden in the hot seat

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden has not publicly declared that he’s emulating Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ brand of centrism, but it sure looks like it.

So does the backlash from activists in his own party.

Last week, Golden was one of just two Democrats in the House to vote against the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that the Biden administration has made a policy priority. He was also one of just two Democrats who voted against a police reform bill named after George Floyd, the Minnesota man killed while in police custody, sparking a wave of racial justice protests last summer.

Golden’s explanation for voting against the stimulus bill essentially boils down to his belief that the package spends too much at the wrong time, with not enough directed at pandemic relief — an argument also made by the GOP. Golden originally supported the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act last summer, but he said in a statement that his vote against it was because no changes were made to a provision that ended qualified immunity for police officers.

“Unfortunately, there have been no negotiations since the legislation’s first passage, and the bill before us retains those same problematic changes,” said Golden, a former U.S. Marine who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Because I understand what it is like to make split second, life-and-death decisions under pressure, and out of respect for the difficult decisions confronting law enforcement officers in the line of duty, I will not support this legislation today.”

Liberal reaction on social media was ferocious. Some vowed to never support Golden again. Others suggested he get it over with and become a Republican.

The complaints are reminiscent of those hurled at Collins from conservative hardliners, who sometimes dub her a RINO, or Republican in name only.

Like Collins, Golden’s communications team has taken to releasing lengthy justifications for controversial votes — his statement following the stimulus vote was nearly 1,500 words; Collins’ speech when she voted to convict President Donald Trump on impeachment charges was roughly 1,400. The thinking seems to be that full explanations for controversial votes will be appreciated by Maine voters, even if voters disagree.

That approach has worked for Collins, but it has also drawn accusations that her decisions are driven primarily by efforts to cultivate a centrist brand, not acts of conscience.

Golden, who represents a swing district and once worked as a staffer for Collins, is now facing similar criticism.

Collins: stimulus opposition ‘bipartisan’

Golden’s no vote on the stimulus bill proved useful to Collins this week, who continues to signal that she’ll join the rest of the GOP in opposing the spending plan.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Collins criticized the White House for saying the bill has bipartisan support.

“I don’t understand how the White House can describe a bill that passed the House without a single Republican vote as being bipartisan,” she said. “What was bipartisan was the opposition.”

Polls show that public support for the stimulus bill is bipartisan. While Republicans in Congress appear universally opposed to it, local GOP officials such as mayors have also expressed support for it.

Flagging flag

The Maine Legislature will hold its first full sessions since December on March 10. It’s not yet clear what bills will come up for floor votes, but one proposal aims to change the Maine flag to the version the state used between 1901 and 1909.

The current flag is, in the eyes of some, pretty unremarkable. The 1901 version has a star in the canton and sets a crudely drawn “pine tree” against a field in the color known as buff, a mix of yellow and white that is remarkable in its resemblance to beige.

Journalist Steve Mistler is Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent. He is based at the State House.