Category: Education
State Board of Education rescinds mask mandate, pending approval from state legislators
The Maryland State Board of Education Tuesday lifted the statewide mask mandate for public schools, allowing the state’s 23 county school boards and Baltimore to each decide how they want to handle masking. The board’s decision could begin as early as March 1. Before the change can take effect it must be approved by the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review, a mixed panel of state legislators. The committee announced it will meet to review the board regulation Friday afternoon.
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Back to school with a new Blueprint and lots of chiefs
This is an expanded version of a column that appears in the September issue of The Business...
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Franchot backs education reform, but not mandated Blueprint
Like several of the nine Democratic candidates for governor, Comptroller Peter Franchot makes improving K-12 education part of his standard stump speech.
But Franchot refuses to even mention the Kirwan Commission and the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future the legislature enacted over the governor’s veto that establishes massive changes for public schools and pumps billions more into education.
Kirwan education reforms are at high risk of repeating historical disappointments
Oversight of Kirwan’s education reforms is expected to come from an Accountability and Implementation Board, whose responsibilities would include governance and accountability during the board’s limited 10-year life. The board’s design casts significant doubt that $32 billion of additional education spending to implement Kirwan’s goals over the next 10 years will lead to durable and significant improvements to Maryland students’ “College and Career Readiness” by the end of high school.
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What parents need right now: Interrupting the COVID slide
In reviewing Return-to-School plans throughout Maryland — with a specific eye to school districts with significant Black and Brown populations — there appears to be a lack of creativity.
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Maryland’s teachers’ union and associations say distance learning should be the rule for the fall semester
Groups representing Maryland’s teachers urged state officials to make virtual learning uniform for the first half of the 2020-21 school year due to concerns associated with the spread of COVID-19.
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Should students return to the classroom in the fall? Not an easy decision
@BryanRenbaum Legislators, parents, and teachers are struggling with whether students should...
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Former Maryland congressman calls for Prince George’s County to change name of James Ryder Randall Elementary School
@BryanRenbaum Former Maryland Rep. Albert Wynn said he is in favor of changing the name of James...
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Record funding, but legislators want more for schools and search for ways to fund it
State spending on schools is at record levels — as it is every year — but legislators are looking for ways to pay for a package of education reforms that will cost billions more.
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Accountability must be key element in increased money for schools
As battle lines harden over how much reform of public schools in Maryland will cost and who will pay for it, the argument has become just about money, and not the scores of moving parts in a comprehensive proposal that would drastically change education here. Lost in arguing about the billions more the changes will cost state and local taxpayers is the key fifth part of the recommendations from the Kirwan Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education (p.122). It spells out in detail how a new super oversight board will hold the school systems accountable for how the money is spent.
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Howard school redistricting plan hurts poor students
Howard County superintendent Michael Martirano proposed a school redistricting plan that hurts poor children by removing them from “Title I” schools where federally-funded programs help children from low-income families.
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Md. Inspector General for education: A junkyard dog that can’t bite
In Maryland, compromise provisions of the law “The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” establishing (among other things) an independent Inspector General (IG) for Education, have created a weak auditing office—a tired, toothless canine. The new IG will be statutorily much weaker than his or her counterparts within the U.S. GAO, federal IG offices, Maryland’s Office of Legislative Audits (OLA), and IGs in the state’s executive-branch agencies.
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