It has been clear from the start that Maine lawmakers are uneasy with the law they passed in 1995 requiring fingerprinting and FBI background checks of public school employees, in particular the requirement that teachers, administrators, custodians and bus drivers pick up the $49 tab.

The initial implementation date of 1997 was pushed back until next year, essentially to delay the uproar. A bill calling for the state to pay for the checks passed in the last session, but died for lack of funding — the start-up cost of $1.13 million to investigate more than 20,000 current school employees could not be found.

Of course the money was there, somewhere within the $300 million surplus. It will be found in the upcoming session and in the new and growing surplus if lawmakers look hard enough.

A bill shifting the cost of this unfunded mandate to where it belongs is in the works. For it to be considered, the prohibition on bringing up a failed issue in the second half of the two-year legislative cycle must be waived by the Legislative Council. Given the Legislature’s spotty history with this law, the failure to allow this bill to proceed will seem like little more than parliamentary chicanery that allows lawmakers to avoid a decision it knows it should make.

The law was enacted to prevent those with records of child molestation from working in the public schools. Of course, the greatest threat to children comes not at school but in the home, at the park and from down the street. Still, although there are sex-offender registration laws, there are gaps in state-to-state applications. It makes sense for Maine to protect its children where it can.

Which is exactly why the state should pay for it. This is not a license fee, the price plumbers, barbers and others — including teachers — pay to become certified in a field. This is a matter of the state gathering sensitive information on a particular group of public employees. School personnel are understandably concerned about where this information will be held, how securely it will be held and what level of prior offense — traffic violations, various misdemeanors and the like — from how long ago can become fodder for school board executive sessions. The best way for the state to address these concerns is for it to pay for this information, to thereby own it free and clear and to have strict guidelines on its dissemination.

Yes, the federal government requires gun purchasers to pay for their background checks. That the federal government has placed the burden of keeping guns out the hands of criminals on the backs of law-abiding gun owners does not justify the state placing the burden of keeping child molesters out of the public schools on the backs of law-abiding school personnel.

Further, the rather open-ended nature of this law has given rise to a concern lawmakers probably did not envision back in 1995. In recent weeks there has been, thanks largely to a conference in Bangor, renewed interest in parent and community involvement in the schools. At the same time, more than one local parent-teacher organization has observed that nothing in the law prevents a state-level administrative interpretation of this law that could require these background checks on volunteers. A quick and easy way to avoid his devastating chilling effect would be for funding of background checks to be a state responsibility and for the Legislature to make clear it has no intention of funding checks on parent volunteers.

And, in case lawmakers haven’t noticed, Maine is facing a teacher shortage, especially in the critical subject areas of math and science. Teacher pay in this state already is slightly below national average and considerably below neighboring states; there is no question that neighboring states and technology-based businesses are out-competing Maine for its brightest young minds. The program that forgives portions of student loans for teachers working in critical-need areas — geographic or subject areas — was recently scaled back to eliminate post-graduate degrees. Those who say Maine cannot afford to pay for these background checks should consider whether Maine can afford to make itself any more unappealing as a place to teach.

It should not be hard for the Legislature to properly fund this well-intentioned law. Public-employee unions want relief and they should find allies among their Democratic friends. Republicans claim to detest anything that even faintly resembles an unfunded mandate. The means to get this important revision back under consideration is available and the money to pay for it is there if lawmakers have the will to find it.