LEWISTON — A legislative task force that has studied Franco-Americans in Maine over the past year voted unanimously to pass four recommendations on to the state Legislature during a meeting at the Franco-American Heritage Center on Wednesday.

The recommendations and findings will be finalized in a report that will be presented to the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee by Dec. 15.

One recommendation includes changing Maine law and pushing the state’s Department of Education to add Franco-American history and culture to public school curricula statewide.

Rep. Brian Bolduc, D-Auburn, a task force member, said he nearly got a bill passed that would have done that in 2012, but it failed on a very close vote in the Maine House. Bolduc said he was prepared to resubmit the bill when the Legislature reconvenes in December and that he believes it will pass.

Rep. Kenneth Fredette, R-Newport, who chairs the task force, said he would co-sponsor the measure. He said he believes that with new data the Legislature has in hand it should pass easily.

Another could lead to legislation that would require the department and local public schools to better track students with Franco-American roots and their educational progress.

The other two recommendations include setting up a statewide, nonprofit Franco-American leadership council and a legislative resolve that would require the state’s public university and community college systems to develop strategies on how to better recruit and retain “first-generation” college students.

The fourth recommendation would apply to all first-generation students — the first in a family to attend college — and would require the university system to report on its progress to the Legislature each year.

The task force, which was created by legislative resolve in 2011, has spent a year studying Franco-Americans in Maine. It has held four meetings: two in Augusta, one at the University of Maine in Orono and one in Lewiston.

The task force also commissioned a poll and study of 600 Franco-Americans in Maine, and task force members said that research produced groundbreaking data. Some of it included new discoveries about Maine’s Franco-Americans, which make up roughly 25 percent of the state’s population.

Some of the data affirmed long-held beliefs, but some led to surprising discoveries and may ultimately provide a template or a framework for studying the state’s many other ethnic groups.

Those surprises were both positive and negative. On the upside, more Franco-Americans than previously thought speak fluent French, but the percentage of Maine Franco-Americans acquiring college degrees is still lower than that of the general population.

“What I’ve found so refreshing about this council is that we’ve taken a broader view in terms of issues,” said Susan Pinette, a task force member and professor of heritage and culture at the University of Maine’s Franco-American Heritage Center.

Pinette said that rather than simply studying the history and culture of Francos and their role in Maine and North America, the task force was able to use the data and information it collected to help shape some solid policy ideas. 

“I like the idea that we addressed questions of policy and addressed Francos, whether they were involved in these (various Franco-American) centers or not,” Pinette said. “It was really data driven and that’s useful and outside of what we do at the Franco-American Center.

None of the recommendations would have the force of law unless they are passed by the full Legislature, which would likely vote on the measures sometime in 2013.

“I really see the work here that we are doing as transformational,” Fredette said. “We’ve been in this state for 100 years and what we need to do as a community of Franco-Americans is find our voice.”

Fredette said his vision for the task force was finding that voice and bringing it together as a “collective entity” throughout the state. His recommendation that a nonprofit be formed to carry on the task force work was a way, he said, to ensure that voice is heard.

About 20 local residents, mostly French speakers, attended the meeting. Task force members said that of the four statewide meetings, the one in Lewiston was the most well-attended by the public.

Robert Poisson, 90, of Lewiston said after the meeting he was pleased with some of what he heard, but he thought the meeting would be more about revitalizing the French language in Maine.

Poisson questioned the panel several times during the meeting, noting his children, including his oldest son who is 65, were raised speaking French, but to his disappointment none of them do so any longer. 

“Do you really believe that after we are gone there will be anybody to follow up?” Poisson asked. “Do you really believe that our children, or our grandchildren or our great-grandchildren, will be having a meeting like this?”

Fredette said he did and that was part of why he wanted a Franco-American leadership council to be created.

Others in the audience, including many who work locally or statewide to advance Franco-American language and culture, said they had hoped the younger generation was poised to pick up on a new-found pride in their ethnic roots.

Doris Bonneau heads the Maine French Heritage Language Program, which offers after-school music and singing programs in local public schools. She said reaching young people and their parents is part of how that is done.

Bonneau had reservations about adding requirements to public school curricula without adding teacher training or time to the school day. She said she fully supports those ideas but also thinks the task force and the Legislature would be remiss to believe those changes would not add expenses to the public education system.

“I just think the response on the part of educators is going to be, ‘I can’t do this with everything I’m doing now,'” Bonneau said.

She suggested that instead of a creating a new nonprofit to become a statewide leadership group, one of several Franco-American organizations in Maine could instead build capacity and membership to represent statewide issues.

[email protected]