Candidate: All issues tied to education

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of profiles of candidates who are running for the Maine District 1 Congressional seat in the primary election June 10.

It almost all begins and ends with education.

That’s the view of former state Sen. Michael Brennan, a Democrat who is running for Maine’s District 1 U.S. Congress seat. He sees it as a cradle-to-grave issue that expands to include global economics, health care and criminal justice.

“I’m the only candidate who’s called for a complete restructuring of education,” said Brennan, a two-term state senator from Portland who served as Senate majority leader and chairman of both the Education Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee. “There’s nobody in the race who understands education issues and education policy issues like I do.”

Brennan is running against five other Democrats in the June 10 primary: Portland attorney Adam Cote, York County District Attorney Mark Lawrence, Augusta doctor Stephen Meister, former state Sen. Chellie Pingree and state Sen. Ethan Strimling.

For Brennan, public education should begin long before kindergarten and continue long after high school. “If we understand the issues facing our economy and the global economy, we have to understand education as starting at early childhood and including higher education.”

He supports federal help for families to pay for early childhood education, by “fully funding Head Start for one” and increasing social services block grants to include subsidizing nursery school. “We need to do a much better job of identifying needs early on so kids are successful in school,” he said. Brennan said this approach ensures children don’t fall through the cracks and into criminal and antisocial behavior.

Beyond high school, he believes in strengthening federal Pell Grants to keep pace with the rising cost of college tuition, and would work to cut interest rates on student loans. He also would like to institute a federal block grant program to states to increase access to a post-secondary education.

“I truly believe that the economy of the future is going to be knowledge based and skills based,” Brennan said.

In talking with businesses across Maine, he said the one topic that keeps coming up is the need for a skilled workforce.

“Now I’ll go to the next step with you,” he said, referring to health care. Those same businesses talk about being bogged down by health care costs, and those same citizens need to be healthy in order to remain productive. He favors a national health plans that would provide Medicare to everyone.

He points to the Dirigo Health program in Maine, on which he worked, as an example. He said while parts of Dirigo have proved problematic, and while the federal government has cut Medicaid, the program “still has made a big difference to those who have it.” He wants all Americans to have complete access to primary care, hospital care, metal health care, substance abuse help and - a key component - long-term care. “You shouldn’t have to lose all your assets” as an older person to be treated.

“We have a moral responsibility to provide health care. Virtually every other industrialized country does,” he said.

How are all of these federal programs funded? For one, Brennan calls for an immediate 10 percent reduction in defense spending. He would get rid of tax cuts implemented by the Bush administration and convert health records from paper to electronic. And, most importantly, he would end the war in Iraq.

“That’s why there haven’t been any strides in health care and other issues,” he said. “We need to stop because of the human cost and the financial cost, and clearly our standing in the world has been compromised. We need to immediately stop the combat phase and immediately start negotiations in the Middle East.”

Brennan is also an outspoken critic of the manner in which the Bush administration has used Sept. 11 as what he sees as an excuse to clamp down on civil liberties. To that end, he supports a repeal of the Patriots Act and an immediate restoration of habeas corpus rights to anyone being held by our country.

“Foreign policy should be driven on promoting civil liberties and civil rights,” he said. “We need to take a critical look at ourselves, as well as other countries. We should be supporting human rights and human dignity.”