Mitchell urges more education Former senator speaks to Maine foundation

AUGUSTA – Sprinkling his comments with references to history, the policies of the Bush administration and his experiences as an international peace mediator, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell on Friday urged Mainers to bolster the state economy by investing in education and in the future.

Mitchell was the keynote speaker at the Maine Development Foundation’s annual meeting, which drew more than 300 people to the Augusta Civic Center. After the foundation conducted its annual business affairs and handed out awards for economic development leadership, Mitchell said Maine is not doing enough to encourage its high school graduates to seek further education.

Though Maine’s high school graduation rate of 85 percent is high, Mitchell said, its rate of graduation from higher learning institutions is below the national average. This limits the resulting economic opportunities that are available in Maine, he said.

“In that regard, we have a very long way to go,” Mitchell said. “Men and women need work to earn the income to feed their families and to derive meaning and fulfillment in their lives.”

As manufacturing jobs fade and information technology becomes more prevalent in the nation’s economy, higher education will become increasingly important to maintaining Maine’s quality of life and to keeping Maine’s youth from moving out-of-state for jobs, according to Mitchell. Stories about Mainers without high school diplomas going on to successful business careers more and more will become a thing of the past, he said.

When he left the Senate 10 years ago, Mitchell founded an institute that each year awards 130 scholarships to high school graduates who are going to higher learning institutions. Mitchell said the work of the institute will eclipse the accomplishments of his political career.

“Beyond my family, that is the most meaningful thing in my life,” he said.

Mitchell also stressed the need to make sure children have access to an early education. If children do not get good health care and intellectual stimulation at a young age, many end up facing more developmental limitations than they would have otherwise, he said.

“These early developments are critical and the quality of care is critical,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell, who since retiring from the Senate has served as a peace mediator in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, warned the audience about what can happen when a population is not supported by its local economy.

“There is a direct relationship between unemployment and violence,” Mitchell said.

The best way to address sectarian violence is to build the economy in affected regions, he said, not by building walls to keep ethnic groups apart.

“The only way to end violence is to take down barriers,” Mitchell said.

The former senator also said Mainers should vote in favor of a bond issue that will be on the state ballot this November. The $20 million bond question, part of an overall $83 million bond package, would help stimulate Maine’s economy by supporting its biomedical and marine research industries and by providing funds for other economic initiatives, he said.

“I urge you, I beg you to do everything you can to ensure the passage of Question Number 4 on the ballot,” Mitchell said.

Former Gov. Angus King, a political independent, stood and urged Mitchell to run for president in 2008, a suggestion applauded by others in the crowd. Mitchell declined to take the bait, however, and in an apparent reference to his two young children indicated he had “two reasons” not to run for the office.

This didn’t stop Mitchell, a Democrat, from making comments critical of President Bush, a Republican.

The high price of gasoline “highlights the lack of a national energy policy,” he said.

After recounting some of Iraq’s history, Mitchell expressed optimism that some form of democracy would be established in the unstable country. But, he said, Bush and his advisers wove a “fantasy that democracy would sweep the Arab world” when making a case to invade. Most Americans, he added, now believe invading Iraq was a mistake.

In a reference to the devastation recently caused by Hurricane Katrina, Mitchell also criticized the president’s economic policies toward the lower class.

“It doesn’t make any sense to help the people of New Orleans by inflicting pain on poor people in other parts of the country,” Mitchell said.

In wrapping up his comments about the economy and social policies, Mitchell made reference to a different president. He quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt, who once said that the best social program for any American is to ensure that they have a good job.

“It was [true] then. It is now,” Mitchell said.