There’s a lot going on in Wicomico County right now, with the main headline being the rumored Thomas Leggs plea deal. (I’ll have more opinion on that in the next few days.)
But a significant step on another burning county issue was taken on Friday when the Maryland Senate approved SB981 by a 46-0 vote, as I expected. This is the legislation which authorizes the straw ballot next year for an elected Wicomico County school board, and I figured it would pass without objection because most members of the General Assembly practice local courtesy on such matters. In 2009 Caroline County had a similar measure passed with little opposition.
This becomes important as I’m hearing through the grapevine that Norm Conway, a Delegate firmly in the back pocket of the teacher’s union, is trying to change the House version of the bill (HB1324) to provide for a three-way vote, with the options being an all-elected school board, an all-appointed school board, or a hybrid of the two. Hatched with opponents of the concept like Wicomico County NAACP head Mary Ashanti – whose sole objection seems to be based on a specious argument of minority disenfrancisement – it seems to me that the intent is to confuse the public into throwing away their chance for input on a body which spends millions of our tax dollars every year but doesn’t answer to voters.
Let’s say a hybrid board passes of the sort they describe. In Caroline County the elected/appointed split will be 3 to 2, in Harford County it is 6 elected to 3 appointed. Here the most likely scenario is that 5 members would be elected (one from each County Council district) and 2 appointed. Presumably the governor would pick his local cronies as he does now; generally they cut their political teeth being bagmen for the teacher’s union. Since one Council district is generally a majority-minority district and usually votes the straight Democrat ticket, the liberals only need one smooth talker in another Council district to fool the voters and get on the board. (While it would be a non-partisan election, most people can easily ascertain who the Democrats are.)
Look, we are trying to scrap the patronage inherent in an appointed system, so let’s do it completely and be done with it. I trust the voters of Wicomico County to elect seven good leaders on the school board so why let Annapolis even have two, Norm?
But since SB981 passed without amendment, the House of Delegates has a chance to send a ‘clean’ bill on to the Governor without the confusion of multiple options. A simple ‘aye’ or ‘nay’ will do and the issue will be settled – I happen to think this question of approving an elected school board would pass easily by a better than 2:1 margin, which is why opponents are trying to muck it up and throw red herring options into the mix. If you split those supporting it while opponents stay firm, they may get a plurality.
Furthermore, if SB981 is amended there’s a chance that a conference committee could become necessary and a small bill like ours could get lost in the shuffle amongst the other pressing issues the state faces like a budget and holding the line on taxes. We don’t want to take that chance.
Don’t let Norm Conway and his state teacher’s union cronies mess with our local bill. Urge the House of Delegates to approve SB981 as is and send it on to Governor O’Malley.
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