Thank You Sir! May I Please Have Another?

Somehow, making someone pay a $55.00 fingerprinting fee simply to apply for a job in a school just seems wrong to me.

Beginning next month, the state will require all would-be teachers, bus drivers and substitutes to pay for their own fingerprinting and background checks in a move that is expected to save the state nearly $400,000 year.

Come Sept. 17, some 7,000 applicants and new hires in school districts around the state will be required to pay the $55 fee. Current school employees have already gone through background checks and won't be affected.

Some school officials say the fee could deter people from applying for low-paying jobs and make hard-to-fill positions even more harder to fill.

"For substitute bus drivers it's a whole day's pay. Maybe when you take out taxes, it's more than a day's pay," said School Union 44 Superintendent Paul Malinski, who oversees schools in Litchfield, Sabattus and Wales.

Having spent some time there, I would have expected the State of Maine to treat folks better.

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