Commentary

Opinion: What students from low-income homes really need

Instead of spending close to $3 million dollars as that is the projected transportation cost associated with Dr. Martirano’s proposal, a prudent way to spend this money would be educating school staff about trauma. No curriculum or instruction provided by the best Howard County teachers will succeed if a student is under chronic stress. 

Commentary

Opinion: Moving kids is no shortcut to educational equity

Psychiatrist Shobhit Negi writes that the recommended area adjustment plan for Howard County schools is a shortcut approach to a larger issue that our society faces.  It is analogous to applying a Band-Aid over a wound while letting it bleed internally.  His concerns are related to the biological and psychological ramifications associated with implementation of the superintendent’s recommendation.

Commentary

Opinion: Howard County is not segregated

The Howard County superintendent’s redistricting plan forces 7,300 students to switch schools, promoting equity by reducing the presence of low-income families at some schools and increasing their presence at other schools. Many of the plan’s proponents cannot defend it in good faith. Consider the example set by the County Council’s own segregation smear.

Commentary

Opinion: School funding workgroup is stacked against counties

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Funding Formula Workgroup, has now been created to make recommendations for the distribution of funds by local school districts and between state and local governments. This workgroup will also make recommendations for specific funding formulas. I am greatly troubled by the make-up of the workgroup, which has only two members to represent interests of the county governments that pay the local costs of schools.

Commentary

Opinion: Smaller class sizes allow teachers to connect with students and achieve more

Larger classroom sizes are not only more difficult for teachers to manage but they also have been proven to make it more difficult for students to learn. Recently, when U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos advocated for super-sizing classroom sizes, teachers like me were outraged. It’s clear Secretary DeVos has NEVER worked with students in a classroom before. Otherwise, she would not have said that.

Education

Fighting with legislature over Maryland’s future a priority for Hogan’s second term

The fifth annual speech to Maryland Business for Responsive Government was billed as a chance for Gov. Larry Hogan to lay out his “second-term priorities” on fighting crime, improving education and fixing traffic problems. But the top priority he laid out in his 2,800-word speech to a crowd of more than 600 business leaders at the Live Casino Hotel in Arundel Mills seemed to be fighting Democratic legislators to keep them from blocking his initiatives, raising taxes and turning back to the “failed policies” of the O’Malley years.

Commentary

Opinion: If you value educators, pay them fairly

To be a teacher these days, we are also social workers, counselors, life coaches, and frontline health responders to Prince George’s County Public School (PGCPS) kids, every day, in our classrooms and in the halls of our schools, says Prince George’s County teacher Yvonne Baicich in an opinion piece we publish to mark the national Teacher Appreciation Day.