I was touched by the Sun Journal article (July 22) highlighting the plight of Poland music educator Lee Libby, who is fighting to save her job by supporting education jobs legislation in the U.S. Senate. I applaud Libby’s decision to visit Maine’s U.S. senators in person and explain the importance of providing one-time emergency funding to keep more than 100,000 educators in the nation’s classrooms.

It is sad to see that Sen. Susan Collins is so opposed to assisting educators, who give as much as anyone to the future of this nation at the sacrifice of potential greater wages in other professions. I wonder if the senator could look her own teachers in the eye and tell them they aren’t worth helping after they assisted her in achieving her own elevated position.

Truthfully, Collins had no problem voting to bail out Wall Street bankers. Are educators so much lower in her eyes that they don’t deserve a little of their own tax dollars back to keep them working and off the unemployment rolls?

I encourage others to show support for local educators such as Libby. Sens. Collins and Olympia Snowe need to know that education matters to people, their families and their community. The senators should support education jobs legislation.

Jarrod Dumas, Mexico