CRIMINAL RECORDS NOW TO FOLLOW STUDENTS WHO SWITCH SCHOOLS: Maryland’s school board took emergency action Tuesday to mandate that school leaders are informed when a student has committed a serious crime. The new regulation follows a story about a 17-year-old Howard High student now charged with murder, and the superintendent’s complaints that he was left in the dark about the teenager’s violent past when he changed school systems. Before, if a student committed a violent crime and transferred schools, it was optional for the old school system to notify the new one. Mike Hellgren/WJZ-TV News.
- Howard County’s superintendent said at a press conference last week that the 17-year-old had transferred from a neighboring school district, and that Howard had “no record” of the nature of his offenses. State education officials did not say what prompted the rule change, an “emergency action” that passed unanimously. Kristen Griffith/The Baltimore Banner.
- Howard County school officials said they had not been alerted to the fact that the 17-year-old Ellicott City resident – who had a handgun in his backpack at the time of his Oct. 15 arrest – had been charged in another county and was under Department of Juvenile Services supervision before he enrolled in Howard High School. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
AFTER 4 TRIES, STATE SCHOOL BOARD OKs NEW SCIENCE OF READING POLICY: Maryland education leaders are ushering in a new literacy plan meant to boost student success as part of the statewide shift to the science of reading. At a board meeting Tuesday, 11 members voted in favor of adopting the fourth version of the policy, with only one member opposing the measure. In June, the original draft faced heavy criticism because of a section requiring schools to hold back struggling third-graders for a repeated school year. Bri Hatch/WYPR-FM.
- In a presentation, the education department said there’s an “urgent need” to address uneven state test scores, especially among students with social and economic disadvantages. Maya Lora/The Baltimore Banner.
- Under the plan, parents can insist that their children be allowed to advance to the fourth grade if they also agree to enroll the child in a free, supplemental reading support program. The literacy plan will be phased in, but the retention portion will not be implemented until the 2027-28 school year. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
JUVIE SERVICES CHIEF, UNDER FIRE, SAYS AGENCY NEEDS ‘BALANCED APPROACH:’ Maryland’s top juvenile services official said Tuesday he is staying focused on improving public safety, holding kids accountable and seeking to rehabilitate them, amid some calls for resignation after recent incidents. Secretary Vincent Schiraldi, who has led the Department of Juvenile Services for the better part of two years under Gov. Wes Moore, said that the agency should have a “balanced approach” of holding kids accountable, while doing “all we can” to turn their lives around. Darcy Costello/The Baltimore Sun.
ADDING SAFEGUARDS FOR ABORTION: Maryland has some of the strongest abortion protections in the country, a longstanding Democratic supermajority in the state legislature, and a governor who proclaimed the state a “safe haven” for the procedure. Now, voters will decide whether to add yet another safeguard. If Question 1 passes on a simple majority Nov. 5, it would enshrine a right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution. Sapna Bansil/The Baltimore Banner.
BOARD SEEKS TO LOWER DRUG COSTS FOR STATE, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: A panel of Maryland lawmakers approved a plan on Tuesday to enable a state board to cap the price that state and local governments pay for certain high-cost prescription drugs for their employees — the latest step taken by a state to try to lower costs for expensive drugs. Staff/WJZ-TV News.
- The committee is chaired by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore), who said Tuesday that prescription drug costs have become “unjustifiably expensive” and supported the board’s effort to lower costs. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
HOGAN, ALSOBROOKS SUPPORT ELIMINATING SUBMINIMUM WAGE: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and her Republican opponent for the Senate, former Gov. Larry Hogan, were each asked if they support eliminating the subminimum wage for people with disabilities on a national level. Both candidates said they would support the move, which Maryland made a few years ago. They were at a forum on issues affecting Marylanders with disabilities. Rachel Baye/WYPR-FM.
COMMENTARY: LEGISLATURE NEEDS TO REVISIT BILL TO FIGHT SCAMS: Earlier this year, a Maryland woman found herself scammed out of $18,000. A spoof phone call mimicking a U.S. Customs Official led to her depositing the money into a Bitcoin ATM. Across the state, Marylanders lost over $160 million to the crimes last year. As a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, my office is often on the receiving end of calls from constituents who have fallen victim to fraud and scams. Though we have emphasized consumer education and ensuring that Marylanders know how to protect themselves, there’s still much more that can be done. Del. Jeffrie Long/MarylandReporter.com.
TRANSGENDER RIGHTS AND SCHOOL CULTURE IN MARYLAND: The culture war erupting around the nation about transgender rights is being fought in Maryland’s school districts, too. School boards that set policy for those districts face a dilemma: Do they prioritize a student’s autonomy over their identity or the parents’ right to know who that child really is? In deep blue Maryland, 32 of 74 school board candidates who responded to a Local News Network survey indicated that these policies go a step too far. Nineteen of those candidates are running for board seats in the 10 Maryland counties that have chapters of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that stresses parents’ rights. Ela Jalil and Devin Etta of Capital News Service/MarylandReporter.com.
HARFORD COUNCILMAN CHARGED WITH THEFT FROM UNION: A Harford County councilman was charged Tuesday with stealing funds from the electrical workers union that he led for more than a half-century, according to court records. Councilman Dion F. Guthrie, 86, a Democrat who is in his second stint representing the Joppa area on the council, was charged in Baltimore County by prosecutors with one count of theft between $1,500 and $25,000. Justin Fenton and Dylan Segelbaum/The Baltimore Banner.
- Guthrie says that the charges are politically motivated. Even so, he also said he has made restitution for the alleged crime and expects to be sentenced to probation before judgment in an as yet-to-be scheduled hearing. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
