Maryland
Interim superintendent visits House panel, education officials lay out legislative priorities – Maryland Matters
Some of Maryland’s top education officials converged in Annapolis on Wednesday to give the House Ways and Means Committee one message: Make sure public education remains fully funded.
The representatives from the Maryland State Department of Education, Maryland Association of Boards of Education and Public School Superintendents’ Association of Maryland also asked lawmakers to continue to support the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan.
Before legislative proposals were presented, interim State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright told the committee about the state’s ambitious plan to incorporate the so-called science of reading method into all 24 school systems starting in the 2024-25 school year.
The state Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday to push for an “aspirational target” for Maryland to rank among the top 10 states in the nation for fourth- and eighth-grade reading proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams, also known as the Nation’s Report Card. The goal is to reach this achievement by 2027.
According to the resolution, the latest NAEP results from 2022 showed about 31% of fourth graders and 32% of eighth graders are reading at a proficient level in Maryland.
In 2015, the state ranked 24th in the nation on the NAEP fourth-grade assessment and has fallen to the current rank of 40th.
During that same time frame, the state ranked 18th in eighth grade achievement, but slid down to 25th in 2022.
Wright is familiar with the science of reading program, which focuses on teaching students based on phonics instructions sound, comprehension and vocabulary.
Wright used the method when she was schools superintendent in Mississippi, one of the nation’s poorest states, where reading proficiency now exceeds Maryland’s, one of the richest states.
To help Maryland implement the science of reading instruction, Tenette Smith will join the Maryland State Department of Education to lead literacy instruction. According to the department, Smith led elementary reading for the Mississippi Department of Education when Wright served as superintendent in 2021.
The majority of Maryland school systems have begun to integrate the science of reading into their curriculum, but all schools must be aligned with that method of literacy instruction next school year.
Maryland educators taught what’s known as the balanced literacy method through the Ready to Read Act enacted in 2019 and implemented in the 2020-21 school year. Although it offered educators a comprehensive approach to literacy instruction for students, local school officials were allowed to choose their own curriculum.
Wright said a literacy plan will be released later this year that will include input from superintendents, educators and other stakeholders.
“This is not a ‘gotcha’ moment,” Wright said to the committee. “This is really a way to provide feedback to our schools and our teachers and our leaders about what may need to change in the classroom to ensure that our children are learning to read.”
Wright summarized other initiatives underway or in the planning process at her agency, including literacy expert teams visiting schools, creating strategies to boost math test scores and establishing a joint committee with representatives from the Maryland Higher Education Commission and University System of Maryland to assess educator programs.
Several members of the House committee gleefully welcomed Wright, who became the state’s interim public schools leader in October.
“I am so excited that you’re here and everything that you have been saying…is speaking my language, so I am very excited to hear all the initiatives that you’ve talked about,” said Del. April Miller (R-Frederick), a former school board member in that county for eight years.
Del. Eric Ebersole (D-Baltimore County), a former teacher, called Wright the “Wizard of Mississippi” for her literacy work.
‘Unfunded mandates’
After Wright’s presentation, representatives with the state Boards of Education, also known as MABE, and the Public School Superintendents’ Association laid out their legislative priorities.
Representatives with the Maryland Association of Boards of Education testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on Jan. 24, 2024. Photo by William J. Ford.
A few proposals that both groups highlighted are more funding and resources to expand early childhood education that’s required under the Blueprint plan. They also want to amend state law for the Blueprint to ensure local funding keeps pace with inflation and to provide permanent funding for Blueprint coordinators.
The state Boards of Education asked legislators to amend state law to allocate $150,000 annually for each of the 24 school systems to fund Blueprint coordinators’ salaries, benefits and “administrative supports.” The estimated cost that would be shared between state and local governments: $3.6 million.
Michelle Corkadel, president of MABE and an Anne Arundel County school board member, said after the briefing that some local school systems cannot afford to fund that position.
“It’s basically a conversation about unfunded mandates [and] that unfunded mandates have consequences,” she said. “I would say if accountability, successful implementation and smooth coordination and transition are of your mindset, then helping to fund it should be the natural secondary course of action.”
Myriam Rogers with Baltimore County Public Schools and Maria Navarro with Charles County Public Schools spoke on behalf of the school superintendents.
One legislative priority was to support any program that promotes teacher recruitment and retention such as the “Grow Your Own” program, which is designed to expand the local pipeline for teachers and school administrators.
“We want people to come into teaching and stay in the field of education,” said Navarro, the legislative committee chair for the superintendent’s association.
The association also seeks an updated cost analysis of the Blueprint plan “in a post-Covid world” done by the state Department of Legislative Services. Some of the analysis, according to association documents, should include transportation, health and food services and building maintenance.
Rogers, who became superintendent last year in Baltimore County, said the jurisdiction is the state’s third largest school system but has some of the state’s oldest buildings.
“With that comes some overcrowding and some capital needs to meet the needs of our students,” she said.
One of the most unique ships featured in Sail250 Maryland and Airshow Baltimore can be found docked at the Baltimore Peninsula.
USS Marinette LCS25 is one of the most functional ships in the Navy fleet. At 370 feet long with 80 crew members, the ship has a helicopter landing pad and hangar, two rib boats in the belly of the vessel, and heavy artillery, including a cannon.
The ship has four engines, two of which are like jet engines, meaning it can sprint ahead of other vessels to intercept watercraft. It can also truck side to side and spin 360 degrees with controllable reversing and steering deflector buckets attached to the stern of the jet propulsion system. It can also traverse the littoral zones, water close to shore, and navigate waters as low as 15 feet deep.
“Where we shine is our ability to operate where other ships can’t,” said Cdr. Brian Sims, the ship’s executive officer. “For a 370-foot ship, one of the smallest in the fleet, it packs a punch. We can go 40 plus knots.”
The ship is used in counternarcotics missions primarily on the East Coast and in the Caribbean.
It is based in Jacksonville, Florida, but was built in Marinette, Wisconsin, which is where the ship gets its name. It began operating in 2023 and has yet to deploy. The ship can be out on the water for weeks or even months.
“We go out and find drug trafficking individuals and intercept, and the Coast Guard then takes over and arrests,” Sims said.
The pilot house is where the ship truly shines. An officer and junior officer monitor the radar and navigation, while another sailor sits at the helm and oversees steering the vessel and monitoring the engines.
“This is a very unique design for Navy ships,” Sims added.
The ship also hosts several heavy artillery pieces, including a cannon on the bow with different types of rounds to combat different threats. It can fire 220 rounds in a minute.
With its rich Naval history, Baltimore is playing host to some of the Navy’s finest, and the crews are equally as excited to be here in Maryland, the backbone of the Navy, celebrating 250 years of American history.
“Baltimore is a fantastic city, steeped in maritime tradition. Of course, we have Fort McHenry that we sailed past and rendered honors to when we arrived,” Sims said. “Having the ability to be in this role in this position on board this ship to celebrate the nation’s 250th, it’s an absolute honor, and one that, one that gives us all pause, and lets us reflect on where we’ve come as a nation.”
As Maryland families head into another hot summer, many are about to receive an unpleasant reminder of just how badly some state leaders failed to address Maryland’s growing energy problems this year.
Higher energy bills are not coming by accident. They are the predictable result of years of poor planning and a continued refusal by Democratic leadership in Annapolis to confront the real issue facing our state: Maryland does not produce enough electricity to meet its own growing energy needs.
Instead of seriously addressing that challenge during this year’s legislative session, Democratic leaders celebrated passage of the so-called Utility Relief Act (House Bill 1532), which offers Marylanders roughly $12 in savings per month. At a time when families are facing soaring energy costs driven by a massive shortage of reliable in-state power generation, that is not meaningful relief. It is a political talking point designed to avoid the larger conversation Maryland desperately needs to have.
Our state imports nearly half of the electricity it uses. Nearly half of the power keeping homes cool, businesses operating and communities functioning every day comes from outside our borders. Yet even as demand for electricity continues to rise, Maryland continues falling behind on building the reliable generation capacity needed to support our future.
That is not a serious long-term strategy.
Families across Maryland are already struggling with inflation, rising housing costs and economic uncertainty. Energy bills are becoming another major financial burden for working families, seniors and small businesses. But instead of focusing on increasing reliable power supply, meaning fully lowering consumer costs, and strengthening Maryland’s long-term energy security, Annapolis continues offering temporary fixes that fail to address the underlying problem.
The reality is simple: Maryland needs more power generation, and every responsible energy source should be part of the conversation. Natural gas, nuclear, renewables, battery storage, clean coal and emerging technologies all have a role to play in creating a more reliable and affordable energy future for our state.
Maryland also needs a broader conversation about the role experienced infrastructure providers and utilities can play in strengthening reliability and supporting future generation needs. These are organizations that already manage the systems Marylanders depend on every day and understand the long-term planning required to maintain dependable service.
Reliable and affordable energy is not a partisan issue. It is a basic requirement for economic growth, business investment and everyday quality of life.
As summer begins and air conditioners start running around the clock, Maryland families will once again be reminded that energy policy decisions made in Annapolis have real world consequences.
Unfortunately, they are paying for those consequences every month.
Del. Jason Buckel is the Minority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates and represents Allegany County in the Maryland General Assembly.
MARYLAND (WBFF) — A group of Republican candidates, a voter, and an election-integrity organization are asking an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge to stop the state from certifying primary election results until election officials contact every voter whose original ballot was rejected and allow them to correct the problem.
The lawsuit, filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court against the Maryland State Board of Elections, comes a month after state election officials acknowledged that some Maryland voters were mistakenly mailed ballots for the wrong political party and sent replacement ballots to affected voters.
The ballot error affected voters who requested physical mail-in ballots for the June 23 primaries.
The Maryland State Board of Elections said its vendor, Taylor Print and Visual Impressions Inc. (TPVI), mailed some of the voters’ ballots for the wrong political party, but the administrator said the board’s vendor couldn’t identify which voters received erroneous ballots. Over 500,000 Maryland voters had requested mail-in ballots, most of them in Montgomery, Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, and Baltimore City.
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