I was extremely disturbed to see that the Maine House voted down a bill that would have given military recruiters the same access to public schools as civilian career and college recruiters.

Shockingly, the primary point of controversy seems to have been a provision that would have ensured they can pay their visits in uniform, something recruiters say has been a problem in the past.

Opponents of this common-sense legislation have tried to complicate the issue, but it’s really quite simple. Military recruiters wanted fair treatment from the schools they were visiting, and Democrats in the Legislature refused to consider their concerns legitimate.

If any military recruiter was ever barred from wearing his or her uniform when in a school, that’s a problem. What was really upsetting, though, was that my legislator — Rep. Gay Grant, D-Gardiner — agreed with the recruiters enough to vote for this bill once, but then changed her mind to help this bipartisan measure fail.

Our service members deserve more respect from our legislators than they got from the House’s misguided vote.

Jim Fossel

Gardiner