Baltimore County took a crucial step toward a partially-elected school board after the House Ways and Means Committee voted Monday to pass an amended school board bill—despite County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's opposition.
The bill, which calls for establishing a six elected- and five-appointed member board, passed out of the committee with about 30 minutes left before the midnight deadline.
But the measure ran out of time and was not voted on by the full General Assembly just minutes before the deadline expired.
Sen. Bobby Zirkin, a sponsor of the bill in the Senate, criticized Kamenetz for his efforts to thwart the move to an elected school board.
"He wasted a lot of people's time trying to kill this bill," said Zirkin. "When Dutch (Ruppersberger) and Jim Smith were here working together meant working in concert with your county executive. This session we were working to defend ourselves against our own county executive."
"It was a complete loser of a session for Baltimore County," said Zirkin, who vowed to make this the first bill he introduces in the next session.
"This isn't over," said Zirkin. "This isn't going away."
Legislators in the House and Senate started holding up bills Kamenetz wanted passed as retribution for his work against the school board bill.
In the House, Del. John Olszewski Jr. tried to put a good face on the events.
"It's gone further than it's ever gone before," said Olszewski. "We made more progress on this than we ever made before. People were really engaged in this and that's healthy."
Several legislators said the bill was scheduled to come up next for a vote just as the clock struck midnight and the session expired. The bill languished for three days in the House Ways and Means Committee waiting for a vote to concur with amendments made in the Senate.
The bill finally began to move after county delegates threatened to vote against a bill that would expand slots to a sixth location in Prince George's County and legalize table games.
Del. Sheila Hixson, a Montgomery County Democrat and committee chairwoman, apologized to her colleagues late Monday night. She said that the committee's policy to hold local bills opposed by a county executive was being overridden.
"There are political considerations," Hixson told the committee.
House Speaker Michael Busch acknowledge the trade but declined to characterize it as an ultimatum.
"The delegation wanted this bill and the delegation had something to trade," said Del. Jon Cardin, a Baltimore County delegate who serves on the committee. "It's not often that the delegation is united but we showed that when we are united we have tremendous power."
To your example, the child like behavior is coming from Kamenetz. The citizens and their representatives decided it was time to convert to an elected board. KK stamped his foot and said, "No, I don't want to follow your rules, I want to do it my way." What you just witnessed was a naked power play and corruption of the democratic process.
This would not have been an entirely elected school board; it would have been a combination and people who are not "connected" to the governor and county executive would have been able to run for a position on the board. Why shouldn't the citizens have the right to directly elect the school board? It's not like our current governor listens to the average citizen.
People got what they voted for with KK! A friend to education, parents and the citizens of this county?? I think not.
The rationale you suggest would lead to the following, which is why not elect everything? Liquor Board, Planning Board, Rec & Parks Board, etc., let them all be elected. One might say that is absurd, but the logic follows. My argument against is the following; the vetting process that would take place for a School Board would essentially be non-existent. What kind of candidates would run? The anti-immigrant activist, the pro-life activist that wants our schools to teach abstinence only, the cut cut cut conservative who wants to gut education, the Christian that wants creationism in the school, the NEA rep who wants more pay for teachers, pick your ideological stand and it will show up. Then go ahead and put it at the bottom of the ballot, see how many bother to vote. Some will say, you had a chance to vote, you didn't, your problem. I say, that will become our children's problems. Dice roll, comes up craps I'm afraid.
My "vocal-ness" in this issue was probably typical. After watching the school board's mismanagement of its budget and curriculum I sent an email to each of my representatives and the county exec stating it was my belief the time for local oversight of the board had arrived. At present a governor's appointments have undue influence on local issues and local taxpayer dollars pour into an agency that does not contain one person responsive to the electorate. Not only could a school board member ignore your inquiries, they could write go to hell on the back of a 100 bill and be perfectly secure in their position. That email solicited a response from each one in which to paraphrase, they were looking at the issue. To my follow up a few weeks later all responded they were leaning toward an altered school board except Kamenetz. Obviously more than my email swayed their decision. The lifeblood of small region local politics isn't money but communication with your constituents. The council and assembly members understood that and responded in kind. Kamenetz, whose own admitted fault is an oversized ego and inability to admit fallibility did not. The taxing authority is a straw man. Many school boards are authorized only to spend their legislated budget. Violation of this tenant equals fraud and can result in criminal prosecution. Again, this is a sad day for democratic rule.
The current board spends local tax dollars with no oversight from those citizens. They selected a new superintendent who has nearly no experience through a secretive process despite having been warned due to numerous p.r. mishaps to keep parents informed of the search. They spent money on complex grading system, forced its implementation into the system and then gave the rights to a retiring employee to personally profit. This is what happens with unchecked power.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/us-falls-in-world-education-rankings_n_793185.html Or if your prefer the fox guarding the hen house. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-02-10/news/bs-ed-hairston-letter-20110210_1_hairston-wasteful-spending-bid There is another link and $7 million that was wasted but I'll be kind and let that one slide.
I'll post as notice of the event.
For the record, I am not an absent parent. In my experience, and common among my peers, schools prefer parents not be involved. Even with the current initiatives to eradicate this divisive climate, IEP teams can only offer services and supports that actually exist. That takes us back to the BOE and budgeting.
Sometimes students that are slower readers have great gifts to develop as part of their education experience.