To the Editor:
When it comes to short-changing ourselves, our economy, and, especially, our children we’ve done well in the past couple of years in the “penny wise & pound foolish” category. The latest example of promoting a continuation of that trend came in a letter that appeared in the LCN about the proposed bond issues that will be on the ballot in November.
It distorted the basis of a set of wise investments, which have historically provided incredibly high returns and economic benefits for several local economies as well as for the state in general. It called Proposition 4 a $10 million gift to a private corporation; it emphatically is not.
Public and private institutions of higher education with research programs, like UCLA & Harvard as the writer noted, as well as research institutes located in the state, attract funding from donors and investors who actually understand the high returns, social and economic, generated from their investments. Moreover, they also support students in degree programs at the University of Maine.
In addition to The Jackson Laboratory, Maine has several other institutions that provide examples of those generous returns and support: the Darling Marine Center, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the MDI Biological Laboratory, to mention a few. Propositions 4 and 5 therefore seek to have citizens invest in one of Maine’s highest-returning domains: well-established scientific research, training, and development programs that also offer Maine students high-end educational experiences.
The private corporations that would receive some of the support have a long and distinguished history of including outstanding educational and training experiences for Maine high school, college, graduate, and post-doctoral students. They provide excellent complementary laboratory and related training which avoids wasteful duplication of programs and needless competition for limited resources.
The bond funds would therefore continue support for the state’s leadership in one of the most productive areas of the Maine economy: strong collaborative programs in highly successful research and development. The programs have engaged public and private institutions in fruitful dialog for decades, enhancing overall productivity, and supporting global competitiveness of several Maine institutions, both public and private.
Indeed, Senator Susan Collins visited the MDI Biological Laboratory in August and exclaimed “This is precisely the kind of investment that our state needs.” Her comments were made in celebration of a nearly $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to strengthen a collaborative program among three research institutions and 10 Maine colleges.
That program, the Maine Idea Network for Biomedical Research Excellence, in support of education, workforce training, and biomedical research, has generated more than $100 million in federal grants to Maine since 2001. Think about all of the economic activity that program has generated for Maine’s other businesses and employees as well.
At a national level, partisan politics has undermined and reduced funding for the scientific enterprise upon which our economy, indeed the global economy, is largely based. Other developed countries with whom we compete at the cutting edge have incrementally increased theirs.
Maine voters have an opportunity to demonstrate their foresight by providing support for further development of outstanding career opportunities for our own residents, and especially our students. Please support Propositions 4 and 5 which represent wise investments in Maine’s future.
(Author’s note: The author, a Maine native and former research scientist, is a member of the corporation of the MDI Biological Laboratory with personal knowledge of the support and involvement of Maine students in several of these programs.)
