Maryland
Maryland’s Humble Mission: Build the Nation’s Best, Most Equitable School System
It was March 2020 and the world was collapsing round Anne Kaiser because the coronavirus pandemic swept throughout the nation. However with the Maryland legislative session pressured into an abrupt shut, the state lawmaker knew there was one invoice she and her colleagues wanted to push over the end line.
The “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” had been within the works since 2016, when the legislature arrange an knowledgeable fee with a humble cost: Develop a plan to remake Maryland’s faculties into a number of the best on the planet.
In a Sunday emergency legislative assembly simply earlier than the COVID shutdown, the landmark coverage, all 235 pages of it, handed with bipartisan assist.
Assist The 74’s year-end marketing campaign. Each reward will likely be matched greenback for greenback.
“We actually weren’t gonna let that laws go one other yr after we had been so shut … and [knew] how necessary it was,” Kaiser remembers.
Now, over two years later, Maryland has begun its decades-long, multibillion-dollar mission to rework its faculties. One superintendent known as the trouble a “seismic shift” for schooling within the state. A researcher described it as a “radical reimagining” of education.
However outdoors the Previous Line State, the Blueprint has barely made a splash, garnering little nationwide consideration.
“It’s type of handed beneath the radar,” mentioned William Kirwan, who chaired the fee that drafted the laws.
Because the coverage rolls out, he suspects “the outcomes will start to get observed and … we could be a bellwether for the remainder of the nation.”
The Blueprint’s highlights embrace:
-
Free preschool for all low-income households
-
A revamped trainer pipeline to diversify candidates and enhance minimal pay to $60,000 per yr
-
A brand new mannequin of secondary college that prepares all college students for school or careers by tenth grade, leaving the ultimate years of highschool for apprenticeships and superior coursework
“The modifications are so important, we’re principally constructing a brand new system of pre-Ok by way of 12 schooling,” mentioned Kirwan, who was the longtime chancellor of the College System of Maryland.
Districts will section within the plan over a 10-year interval and the coverage will finally inject an extra $3.8 billion yearly into the state’s schooling system. That shakes out to a 22% improve in general schooling spending within the state, or about $4,000 extra per scholar per yr, famous Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown’s Edunomics Lab.
Funding comes from taxes on on line casino revenues and web gross sales, amongst different sources. A newly created Accountability and Implementation Board, of which Kirwan is a member, will information districts by way of the upcoming modifications and approve or deny their enchancment plans.
Closing alternative gaps
Not solely does the Blueprint purpose to boost the state’s general educational achievement, which Kirwan calls “mediocre” based mostly on previous outcomes from the Nation’s Report Card, it additionally seeks to right what many specialists describe as a extremely unequal college system with a regressive finance construction.
Evaluation: Are Colleges Progressive or Regressive? The Hidden Figures Behind Per-Pupil Funding in D.C., Maryland and Virginia
Baltimore Metropolis and Prince George’s County faculties serve the best share of Black and Hispanic college students within the state and for years have acquired among the many least per pupil funding of any district — $3,600 and $4,500 under the extent really helpful within the state funding method, respectively.
“Essentially the most persistently underfunded college methods within the state disproportionately educate probably the most Black and brown youngsters,” mentioned Shamoyia Gardiner, government director of Robust Colleges Maryland.
The Blueprint will vastly cut back that imbalance by infusing the biggest share of funds to the neediest districts. Its method adjusts funding ranges based mostly on a measure for focus of poverty. The method doesn’t take into account racial makeups after the state lawyer normal mentioned doing so could be unlawful, Gardiner defined.
“The promise of the Blueprint is that in a world-class system, most of our youngsters are going to succeed and we’re not going to have the ability to inform these variations alongside the strains of race or class,” she added.
Now within the wake of COVID, which hit susceptible college students reminiscent of these from low-income households the toughest, the stakes for faithfully implementing the Blueprint have solely been elevated, mentioned Schooling Belief researcher Robert Ruffins.
“The hole that already existed … has widened, however we’ve the chance to shut it if we get this proper,” he mentioned.
Maryland Unveils ‘Bold’ Slate of Studying Restoration Packages Utilizing COVID Reduction Funds
Trepidation & promise
Some observers criticize the mammoth coverage, arguing that whereas it heaps funds towards faculties, it has no mechanism to ensure that the proposed modifications ship their meant results.
“It’s type of a want listing of all of the issues we predict will make Maryland faculties higher with no promise that after we spend all the cash this stuff will likely be mounted,” mentioned Annette Anderson, a Johns Hopkins College schooling professor whose three youngsters attend Baltimore Metropolis Colleges. “I don’t really feel like we’ve the accountability. … How will we measure that we’re making progress on this?”
Kirwan counters that the character of the coverage mitigates that concern. Districts are required to submit their plans to an unbiased physique “with actual tooth,” the Accountability and Implementation Board, for evaluate and attainable amendments to make sure they roll out modifications faithfully, he mentioned.
Rachel Hise, government director of the accountability board, added {that a} quarter of every district’s annual Blueprint funding will likely be robotically withheld till the board decides to launch it. Beginning in 2026, that call will embrace whether or not the varsity system has made ample progress to enhance scholar efficiency measured, partially, by take a look at scores.
Nonetheless, college leaders fret whether or not a number of the modifications will likely be possible for districts already weakened by educator shortages and looking for to get well misplaced floor from the pandemic.
John Woolums, director of governmental relations for the Maryland Affiliation of Boards of Schooling, describes himself as a “cheerleader” for the Blueprint, however acknowledges that a number of the college boards in his community have trepidations about implementation. The coverage requires faculties to steadily cut back trainer caseloads to allow them to dedicate time in the course of the college day to small-group tutoring and intervention.
“Simply the mathematics of that requires that you’ve got further employees to fulfill the wants of different college students throughout that point,” Woolums mentioned.
One other subject that may require “outside-the-box pondering,” mentioned Hise, is bodily area for expanded preschool applications. One attainable answer she factors to is operating early little one care facilities inside excessive faculties. With extra upperclassmen out of the constructing in the course of the day for apprenticeships, some lecture rooms will likely be unoccupied, she anticipates. On the similar time, the applications may give excessive schoolers new real-world studying alternatives.
“You’ve obtained eleventh and twelfth graders who’re apprenticing inside that little one care heart … studying a brand new subject whereas they’re nonetheless in highschool,” she proposed.
Michael Martirano, superintendent of the roughly 57,325-student Howard County Public Faculty System, mentioned he’s actively contemplating that choice. It’s an instance of how the completely different prongs of the Blueprint can reinforce one another and convey about revolutionary options, he mentioned.
“There’s synergy and vitality round all of those [components] to suppose in a different way about getting higher outcomes for teenagers with this infusion of {dollars} from the state,” the superintendent mentioned.
Even within the early years of implementation, Martirano has seen how the provisions of the Blueprint have given him leverage to make modifications he’s lengthy wished for.
For instance, with the Blueprint’s mandate that trainer minimal salaries finally attain $60,000, the chief proactively introduced his district’s ground as much as $56,000 final yr, which he mentioned largely insulated Howard County from latest trainer shortages affecting close by districts. The varsity system employed a document 500 new lecturers this yr and had lower than 1% vacancies for trainer roles, he mentioned.
“Issues that I’ll have needed to advance earlier than … that will have been tough to implement previously at the moment are an expectation,” Martirano mentioned. “These should not negotiables. These are issues that now must be finished.”
Gifted Summer season Packages Skew White & Rich. Not Baltimore’s — And It’s Free
‘In it for the lengthy haul’
However even with early indicators of progress, Hise, who penned many of the invoice’s textual content as a legislative analyst, is aware of that the street will likely be lengthy earlier than the coverage is applied in full.
Alongside a number of the top-performing worldwide college methods, the 2016 legislative fee studied Massachusetts, which for the reason that Nineties has adhered to a complete college enchancment plan and is now touted as among the best U.S. states for schooling. It took many years of labor to get to that time, Hise noticed.
Nonetheless, there are shortcomings, she mentioned.
“[Massachusetts schools] nonetheless have an achievement hole that they should shut,” mentioned the coverage knowledgeable. “The [Blueprint’s] aim is to boost all boats and likewise shut the hole.”
Gardiner, of Robust Colleges Maryland, hopes her state will keep dedicated to the coverage’s provisions, which, to her concern, have already seen slowdowns. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed the unique invoice in 2020, forcing a veto override vote from the legislature in 2021 and setting the implementation course of at the very least a yr behind. Democrat Wes Moore will change the term-limited governor in January, however additional out, particularly as a number of financial indicators level towards a attainable recession, she fears dedication may wane.
“The truth that we’re already so delayed … makes me need to be certain that we don’t slide any additional away from our authentic imaginative and prescient,” Gardiner mentioned.
MD is Not VA: Schooling Points Enjoying Out Otherwise in Governor’s Race
The coverage finds a key ally in State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury, who has mentioned the Blueprint is likely one of the “primary causes” he took the highest job in Maryland faculties in 2021. The state has a possibility to develop into a frontrunner in high-quality, equitable schooling, he says.
The responsiveness to group suggestions instills confidence in sharlimar douglass, chief of the Maryland Alliance for Racial Fairness in Schooling. (She doesn’t capitalize her identify.) The accountability board has held a sequence of digital working classes that douglass, who has attended each, estimates sometimes draw at the very least 90 folks.
“The method by which the board is working to ensure that all stakeholders are heard from has been wonderful,” the advocate mentioned. “Every part that’s put within the chat appears to be responded to.”
Hise, for her half, is maintaining her concentrate on the longer term.
“Systemic change takes time,” she mentioned. “You’ll be able to’t take a look at it in two- or four-year phrases. It’s important to be in it for the lengthy haul and you must be dedicated to it throughout election outcomes and modifications in management. It needs to be above all of that. That’s the aim.”
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Maryland
Maryland Senate race poll shows Democrat Alsobrooks leading GOP's Hogan, despite 1 in 3 not knowing who she is
![Maryland Senate race poll shows Democrat Alsobrooks leading GOP's Hogan, despite 1 in 3 not knowing who she is Maryland Senate race poll shows Democrat Alsobrooks leading GOP's Hogan, despite 1 in 3 not knowing who she is](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/LARRY-HOGAN-ANGELA-ALSOBROOKS.jpg)
The Democratic candidate for senate in Maryland is leading her GOP rival despite more than a third of eligible voters not recognizing her name.
A poll published by Gonzales Research & Media Services this week found that Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks has pulled ahead of Republican former Governor Larry Hogan by five points — 46% to 41%.
Alsobrooks’ current success in the polls comes as a surprise, given the Democratic candidate’s continued struggles with low name recognition among voters.
The Gonzales poll found that approximately 34% of registered voters do not recognize Alsobrooks by name. This includes approximately 33% of independents who do not recognize Alsobrooks, as well as 17% of eligible voters registered with the Democratic Party.
NEW POLL REVEALS REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE DEADLOCKED WITH DEM IN CRUCIAL DEEP BLUE STATE
Maryland Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks speaks at a campaign event on Gun Violence Awareness Day at Kentland Community Center in Landover, Maryland. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Notably, 72% of total eligible voters told the pollster that they did not recognize the Democratic candidate.
MARYLAND DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE SAYS THERE SHOULD BE NO LIMIT ON ABORTION
The winner of the November election will succeed Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who is retiring this year after serving nearly two decades in the Senate and nearly six decades as a state and then federal lawmaker.
With Democrats trying to protect their fragile Senate majority, Hogan’s late entry into the race in February gave them an unexpected headache in a state previously considered safe territory.
![Larry Hogan wins GOP Senate nomination in Maryland](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/Larry-Hogan-primary-night-victory-Annapolis-MD-May-14-2024-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Former two-term Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland celebrates his victory in the 2024 Maryland Republican Senate primary, in Annapolis, Maryland. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Hogan left the governor’s office at the beginning of 2023 with very positive approval and favorable ratings.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
A vocal Republican critic of former President Trump who previously flirted with a 2024 White House run, Hogan has repeatedly said that he will not vote for the former president in November’s election. In the spring, he stood out from most other Republicans for publicly calling for the guilty verdicts in Trump’s criminal trial to be respected.
The Gonzales Research & Media Services poll was conducted from Aug. 24 to Aug. 30 and surveyed 820 self-described likely voters via phone interviews.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Maryland
Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers.
![Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers. Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers.](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/03/USAT/75064386007-53969346285-3-e-86-bcd-864-b.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1023,576,x0,y53&format=pjpg&width=1200)
The lawsuit announced on Tuesday claims three stores sold one person 34 guns over six months and ignored the buyer’s red flags.
Gun trafficking: How guns travel illegally on the iron pipeline
Here’s how guns legally bought in one state are smuggled illegally into another on the iron pipeline.
Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
The nation’s capital is grappling with a deadly flood of weapons. Prosecutors are pointing fingers at three federally licensed gun stores in Maryland.
Attorneys general of Maryland and Washington D.C. filed a lawsuit Tuesday against three gun shops for selling firearms to a straw purchaser – the same stores identified as the top retailers of recovered crime guns in Maryland between August 2020 and July 2021, according to a report commissioned by the state attorney general’s office.
According to the lawsuit, the three stores in Montgomery County, Maryland, roughly 25 miles northwest of Washington D.C., collectively sold 34 semiautomatic pistols to one person in six months. Only two remained with the purchaser, while the rest are presumed to be trafficked, prosecutors said.
Some have been recovered from people accused of assault, a stabbing, and drug distribution, the lawsuit added, while most remain unaccounted for.
“Federally licensed gun dealers know the law and they know what to look for to spot possibleillegal trafficking. As this lawsuit demonstrates, gun dealers cannot just choose to ignore these warning signs and guardrails,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. “Let this be a warning to other dealers who put public safety at risk to make a profit: We are watching, and we will hold you accountable for illegal conduct that fuels gun violence across our region.”
The lawsuit comes as public health experts and gun safety advocates warn about an alarming level of gun violence across the nation — guns are the leading killer of children in the U.S. and kill nearly 50,000 people a year. Lawsuits in other states have also targeted sellers and traffickers as culprits in gun crimes, including New Jersey, Michigan, and Philadelphia.
Lawsuit: Man bought 34 guns in 6 months
Three federally licensed gun stores – Engage Armament, United Gun Shop and Atlantic Guns – collectively sold Demetrius Minor, an “obvious straw purchaser,” 34 guns between April 6 and October 5, 2021, according to the lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
According to Engage Armament’s records cited in the lawsuit, Minor spent more than $31,000 at the one store for at least 25 guns. In July 2021 alone, he came to the store at least four times and bought five guns, prosecutors said.
Minor gave many of the weapons to a relative, Donald Willis, a Washington D.C. resident with a record of violent felonies, the lawsuit said, and Willis then spread the guns to other “dangerous individuals.” Minor has been convicted for his role in the straw sales. But Tuesday’s lawsuit said the stores “who chose profits over safety” have faced no consequences for their “critical role in fueling gun violence” in the D.C. metro region.
At least nine of the weapons, which the lawsuit contends were “illegally sold,” were found at crime scenes in Washington D.C. and surrounding Maryland suburbs. “Many more are likely in the hands of other individuals legally barred from possessing firearms and will be used in future crimes,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit cites a federally required form to buy a gun — the ATF firearms transaction record — which is used to determine whether a gun sale is legal. The form notes that straw purchases are illegal, meaning the firearm must go to the person who legally bought it. It also states that the seller is responsible for ensuring the sale is legal, and simply conducting a background check does not fulfill obligations.
The lawsuit notes that just as straw purchases are illegal, it is also against the law for a firearm dealer to help advance illegal sales, and federal law requires licensed dealers to report when an unlicensed buyer purchases two or more handguns within five days.
Atlantic Guns denied the straw sales allegations in a statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday.
“Atlantic Guns, Inc. has never and will never knowingly sell to someone who we have reason to believe is committing a straw purchase,” the store said, declining to comment further before review of the lawsuit.
Engage Armament and United Gun Shop didn’t immediately return USA TODAY’s requests for comment.
Cities and states across U.S. go after sellers to battle gun violence
The lawsuit Tuesday is the latest to sweep the nation as cities and victims of shootings target firearm stores and traffickers to battle gun violence.
Last July, Philadelphia announced a lawsuit against three vendors that the city said were the source of more than 1,300 crime guns between 2015 and 2019. The weapons were used in shootings, a home invasion, drug crimes, vehicle theft, and more, according to the city.
Three Missouri men were charged earlier this year for illegally selling guns to the people who fired shots into the Super Bowl victory parade that killed a mother and injured over 20 people earlier this year.
In Michigan, the parents of a 14-year-old Oxford High School student who was severely injured in a 2021 mass killing, named a gun store as one of the defendants in a lawsuit, alleging Acme Shooting Goods negligently and illegally sold the firearm used in the school assault that killed four people and wounded seven others. Acme sold the gun to the shooter’s father while ignoring signs it was a straw purchase, the lawsuit alleged.
In July 2023, a northern Indiana gun shop that police called a key supplier of Chicago’s criminal firearms market announced it was closing its doors after Chicago sued Westforth Sports in 2021 over what it said was a pattern of illegal gun sales.
A USA TODAY investigation earlier this year found the majority of guns used in crimes are sold by a small fraction of the nation’s gun shops. Two of the Maryland gun shops named in Tuesday’s lawsuit – United and Atlantic – were on a list by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of stores that sold at least 25 guns traced to a crime over a year that were purchased within the past three years.
Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler and Grace Hauck, USA TODAY
Maryland
Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters
![Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters](https://marylandmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/DSC_0311-scaled.jpeg)
Transportation projects around the state will be put on hold as officials grapple with ongoing budget constraints and a growing list of expensive projects.
A combination of budget pressures has created a $1.3 billion funding gap over a six year period, which Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said forced his department to defer projects across the state.
“We just don’t have enough dollars to do what we have to do within our means. So that’s what we’ve had to do,” he said.
The agency Tuesday released a draft of its latest Consolidated Transportation Program, a six-year budget that contains $19 billion in projects around the state. Wiedefeld said the draft required tough choices to address the budget gap, a “historical issue” that continues.
Wiedefeld said the state’s transportation funding shortfall is driven, in part, by an end to federal COVID-19 aid. Other factors include inflation, increased construction costs, less than expected revenue from the state’s gas tax, and reduced federal funding.
“The biggest one we do is we take a look at our financial forecast and all the ups and downs that may occur in the financial forecast,” Wiedefeld told reporters during a briefing Friday. “And so, in doing that, what we learned was that some of the projections that we had in terms of the growth of some of our sources were not growing at that rate, particularly our largest source of revenue, the motor fuel tax. There were some others that were either not growing or remaining flat again, not growing to the level that we’d hoped for.”
Wiedefeld said that resulted in roughly a $350 million decline in projected revenues over the six-year period of fiscal 2025-2030.
“At the same time, our operating costs continue to grow at a rate a little bit more significant that we have projected,” said Wiedefeld, adding $300 million in projected costs over the six-year period.
Counties scramble for answers, options as state signals deferral of transportation requests
Additionally, lawmakers earlier this year restored proposed cuts in state aid to local governments as part of Highway User Revenues as well as proposed cuts to transit systems run by 23 counties and Baltimore City. Restoration of those proposed cuts added another $400 million over six years, Wiedefeld said.
“So those three things basically are our realities that put pressure on the financial forecast,” he said.
Finally, Wiedefeld said the amount of federal aid is falling short of expectations.
“We were pushing all the modes to really buckle down and see where else we could get federal dollars for delivering projects,” he said. “We were shooting for roughly 80% federal, 20% local match, overall for the program. Basically, we were not able to achieve that, and we’re probably not going to be able to achieve that into the future.”
Instead, Wiedefeld said the state now expects a 75-25 split. “That 5%, although it sounds small, is significant, obviously, when you think of the amount of federal dollars that would bring down,” he said.
The resulting lack of revenue means counties will see priority projects not already underway slowed down or paused
“In effect, projects that are into the future — larger projects that we want to construct — we have to slow those down in terms of the process to get them to construction, until we have available dollars to pick that back up,” Wiedefeld said.
One large project that could suffer is the proposed widening of the American Legion Bridge.
“So, on the American Legion bridge, obviously, we have the record of decision for this, you know, larger improvement there,” said Wiedefeld. “But given the stress that we’re under, we’re going to have the state highway particularly focus on the pure state of good repair issues around the American Legion bridge.”
The state applied for a federal grant to help pay for the costs of repairing “structural issues with the bridge,” he said. “So that’s where we’ll be focusing,” Wiedefeld said.
News of the delays was delivered to county leaders by Wiedefeld and transportation officials during the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference last month.
The transportation secretary said he will also seek to slow down the purchase of zero-emissions buses in the coming years, as some major bus manufacturers are having issues with the performance of electric buses, as well as availability.
Moore warns of difficult fiscal decisions ahead
A new clean diesel bus costs the state $750,000. A hybrid bus costs about $1 million each. A new electric bus costs $1.4 million each.
“So, as you play that over the program period, if you defer that, it actually saves a lot of dollars,” Wiedefeld said. “It allows us not to dig deeper into operating cuts, that we would have to do, or system preservation cuts.”
Wiedefeld said he will not request cuts to his department’s operating budget as he did last year when he cut 8% across the board. He will also not request cuts to county aid or local transit networks.
“What we’ve done is we’ve gone through all those projects, and we’re going to defer those projects at a logical deferred point,” Wiedefeld said. “So basically, some of those projects were in different levels of study. We want to make sure that they stop at a point where we don’t lose any of the effort that we had done, but we don’t have the available funds right now to continue those projects. What you’ll see in the capital program is basically those projects that will be deferred.”
A year ago, Wiedefeld proposed cuts to county shares of highway user revenues and to local transportation networks.
Highway user revenues — decimated in cuts more than a decade ago — had yet to be restored to previous levels. Proposed cuts, nixed this spring by the General Assembly, would have eliminated planned increases in future years.
“Even so, the fiscal 2025 funding for HUR (highway user revenues) falls significantly short of Maryland’s appropriate and historic funding levels, even without adjusting for inflation,” the association of county governments said in a post on its website. “This gap becomes even more pronounced when accounting for rising road maintenance and materials costs.”
The association said it would continue to seek restoration of state highway aid.
“MACo and county leaders will continue urging Maryland policymakers to advance a sustainable plan to address critical infrastructure needs across the state,” the group said in its statement. “Proper restoration of the HUR formula should be a priority in advancing solutions that create sensible and reliable support for all locally maintained roadways.”
-
Politics1 week ago
Why won't Pennsylvania voters have results on Election Night?
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump sets intense pace with campaign events as questions swirl about Harris' policy positions
-
World1 week ago
Portugal coast hit by 5.3 magnitude earthquake
-
News1 week ago
Former national security adviser McMaster says he won’t work for Trump again
-
World1 week ago
Who is Telegram CEO Pavel Durov? What to know about his arrest in France
-
Science1 week ago
How much more water and power does AI computing demand? Tech firms don't want you to know
-
World1 week ago
Commission mandarin flags convergence of digital with industry
-
World1 week ago
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 915