AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci’s proposal to require Maine to join every other state in the nation in reporting teacher certification denials and rejections to help flag sex offenders who move state-to-state drew no opposition at a public hearing Wednesday.

All of the other states, as well as some Canadian provinces, report revocations, suspensions and reinstatements to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification.

A state law that bars Maine from reporting that information to the clearinghouse was brought to Baldacci’s attention last year after The Associated Press reported on sexual misconduct by teachers in the nation’s schools. Baldacci said later he would support a bill to change the law.

Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee on Wednesday that the legislation stemmed from last fall’s AP series, which documented 2,500 teachers who had been punished in a review of five years of certification actions.

Gendron said her department has been barred from releasing the information since a law calling for teacher fingerprinting and background checks was deliberated several years ago.

At that time, an extra layer of protection was added to state law to protect teachers’ privacy, she said. The state cannot say why teachers are terminated, suspended or reinstated. Under the changes envisioned, the state could release limited information about certificate holders.

“It allows us to respond to the clearinghouse and identify individuals we’ve taken action against by providing their name, their Social Security number, and the action that we took. But it doesn’t permit us to go into detail,” said Gendron.

School districts inquiring into a teacher’s background would have to use the information available to investigate what led the state to take action on a certificate, Gendron said.

Certificate holders do not include some employees, such as substitutes and bus drivers, who do not hold certificates, she said.

Nationally, states have a range of policies on how much information they release.

“Some states provide us with open files – it’s anything you want,” said Gendron. Others have narrow guidelines on what they release. “It’s state-by-state,” said Gendron.

While their was no opposition to the bill, some lawmakers expressed concerns about teachers’ privacy. Others expressed more concern that students are protected from teachers who lose their jobs for sexual misconduct in one state but are able to get classroom jobs in another.

While Maine can now draw information from the national database, it offers nothing in return, allowing offenders in Maine to get out-of-state jobs elsewhere.

The legislation meets the need to protect students in other states, said state Sen. Peter Bowman, D-Kittery, the committee co-chairman and sponsor of the measure. “It passes the common sense test.”

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