Jon Reisman

“Equity” is promoted across Maine State Government and the University of Maine System as part of broad Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts and within specific policy initiatives like the Climate Action Plan, which has a significant and significantly funded equity component. What equity does not have is a definition. Promoting an undefined policy goal is pure policy malpractice. Determining what equity actually is and what Maine State Government is doing to promote it has turned into a strange dance called the equity limbo. 

Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) requests for the definition of equity and any associated metrics were sent to more than a dozen Maine public entities promoting DEI, including the University of Maine System (UMS, including the Maine School of Law), the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF), the Attorney General, Secretary of State, Environmental Protection (DEP), Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (DHHS), Administration and Financial Services, Public Utilities Commission, and Public Advocate's Office. None of them had a definition of equity. 

DHHS did cite a 2022 DEI advancement plan that included the following under “Glossary of Terms:” Equity - when barriers are identified and removed to ensure fair treatment, equality of opportunity, and fairness in access to information and resources for all. That is the only equity definition Maine State Government was able to supply. I recommend checking out the glossary, as it is a wonderful example of pure bureaucratic CYA BS. https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/sites/maine.gov.dhhs/files/inline-files/Strat...

None of them offered any associated metrics except for the Climate Action Plan under GOPIF and DEP. Despite the Governor’s Legal Counsel admitting there is no definition of equity in the Climate Plan, there are metrics to measure undefined equity in the Climate Plan. The metrics were developed by the University of Maine’s Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. 

Developing metrics for an undefined policy goal is simultaneously an act of intellectual dishonesty, political correctness, and aggravated policy malpractice. 

The lack of a definition of equity is a consequence of concerns that equity means equality of results (as opposed to equality of opportunity). If so, it likely violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. Equality of results is popular on the left and poisonous on the right. Or to put another way — there is a consequential difference of opinion over whether discrimination is an equitable and lawful response to discrimination. Equity advocates apparently do believe that two wrongs do make a right.

House Republican leader Faulkingham has sponsored LD 1593, “An Act to Require Certain Public Entities to Define Their Use of the Term ‘Equity.’” Here is the summary:

This bill requires the State or a local government or other political subdivision or educational institution when making a decision based on advancing equity, the entity making that decision must provide on a publicly accessible website the definition of "equity" used to make the decision and the metrics used by that entity to measure equity. 

LD 1593 is co-sponsored by Washington County’s Senator Moore and Representatives Tuell, Strout, and Mingo, as well as Representatives Smith (Palermo), Poirier (Skowhegan), Wadsworth (Hiram), and Ardell (Monticello). It’s a Republican bill amidst national DEI drama and efforts across Maine to excise/hide equity and rebrand DEI as just “belonging and inclusion.” LD 1593 came out of the Revisor’s Office quite late (despite its simplicity and brevity — it’s one paragraph, about 100 words total). It has been rescheduled for a public hearing before the State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday, May 7, at 1 p.m.  https://www.google.com/url?q=https://legislature.maine.gov/Audio/%23214&...

I’m looking forward to twisted testimony on why transparency is a very bad idea.

Editor’s Note: In last week’s Freedom Studies, we erroneously referred to LD 1593 as LD 1594. 

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at [email protected].