Category: Education

A plea for return

On this day, the 225th anniversary of the Constitution, this might be a good time to pass along this commentary by an old and good friend of mine, Bob Densic. He’s the founder of a group called Back to Basics.

In our past seminars on “The Enumerated Powers”, I have asked the audience what is the main cause of our nation’s problems.  Often I hear concerns of a federal government spending problem that gives drunken sailors a bad name.  Occasionally someone will offer up a concern of federal revenue (not that often Thank God!).  While these answers focus on the frightening economic conditions we find ourselves in, they often miss a larger issue: that of God-given freedom and liberty, or state control.

The Forefathers who came to this continent did so with a clearly established goal.  “in the name of God, Amen.  We whose names are underwritten… by the grace of God… defender of Faith; having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith… a voyage to plant the first colony…do by these present, and in the presence of God, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic..”  Apparently the Forefathers had not attended public education where they would be taught of “separation of church and state”.

Our nation’s Founding Fathers carried this vision forward throughout or Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.

(snip)

Like so much of our nation’s history, we have forgotten from where we have come. We have ignored the lessons of the past and we have stood by as the principles that were fought and paid for with blood have been twisted or ignored. The Forefathers that came to this continent did so to maximize the freedoms they recognized as coming from God. Our Founding father fought a war with the most advanced, the most feared army and navy the world had ever seen. They won and secured that freedom not only for themselves, but for future generations.

It is our duty, it is our solemn obligation to carry on these principles. The book of Revelations warns us “Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Rev 2:5). As Joshua was taking the nation of Israel to the Promised Land, representative from the twelve tribes carried stones from the riverbed of the Jordan River to create a memorial – so that future generations would learn and return to the ways of God-given freedom.

On Monday, September 17, 2012, we will celebrate the 225th anniversary of our Constitution. If we are to restore our nation, we must take up the burden of remembering the past, relearning the principles and returning to them. Please join me in these 10 simple steps and together, we will become the tireless, irate minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men!

The “10 simple steps” Bob cited come in an article on the anniversary written Friday by Julia Shaw of the Heritage Foundation, which I’ve found useful to link as well.

But it’s interesting to note a juxtaposition in the space of less than a week, and a change seemingly to suit those who don’t believe America is the “shining city on a hill” but rather just a space on the map, a nation no more exceptional than, say, Estonia, Peru, or Namibia.

We just went through a 9/11 which reminded us once again there is a group out there actively striving for “death to America!” Yet the prevailing mood conveyed by the current administration is one of devoting the day to service.

On the other hand, few take the time to celebrate or even think about the blessings of liberty bestowed upon us by our Creator and enshrined in perhaps the finest document to come from the hands and minds of men. Just think: these learned men could have been the tyrants, dukes, and lords of this fledgling nation, protected by an ocean from the mighty Crown that they just beat back. They couldn’t be blamed if they were feeling their oats, boastfully giving themselves a place in the hierarchy they’d earned through hard-won independence.

Instead, they yielded all that prospective power to a mostly uneducated motley group of people, many of whom were barely scratching out their existence in this new nation as common farmers and laborers. It would have been so tempting for these leaders to take the paternal attitude that they needed to take this nation by the hand and lead it where they believed it needed to go, but they resisted and trusted the people to have common sense. All they needed to do was live by the precepts spelled out in this wonderful document and they, too, could secure and maintain their God-given rights ceded to them by those who wrote the Constitution and could have been in a position to take full advantage.

But while we celebrate our independence with everything from fireworks to parades to crass commercialism, the annual passing of Constitution Day goes almost unnoticed. Perhaps that’s fitting since, as a regulator of the federal government, all the Constitution did was replace the weak and ineffective Articles of Confederation which had formed the skeletal governmental structure for the decade which had passed since independence was declared.

Yet the question has to be asked: why is it so unnoticed? What would be so wrong about a reminder, or even a government holiday? Sure, they would make it one of those generic Monday holidays just to give themselves a late-summer three-day weekend but it would still be a topic of conversation. (And yes, I can see the crass commercialism out there: three guys dressed up as our Founding Fathers debating whether the right to save 50% off a TV should be in the Bill of Rights. That right didn’t make it into the Constitution, but we’ll give you the freedom to save big at XYZ Warehouse this Constitution Day weekend!)

Perhaps there is a group out there, though, who would like the Constitution and its “negative liberties” to be forgotten by the public, the better to do their dirty work.

Unfortunately, most of us will be working today and not have the opportunity to give the Constitution the commemoration it deserves on this 225th anniversary of its unveiling. But the better way to celebrate would be a true day of service: making an active effort to bring about the return of those liberties granted to “We the People” and not a overbearing, Crown-like tyrannical government.

Restating the case for an elected Wicomico Board of Education

As you may or may not be aware, our illustrious Secretary of Appointments went off the board once again and chose a Republican member of the Wicomico County Board of Education, one whom we didn’t screen. After sending up the names of three people who we deemed qualified to lead the WCBOE in a proper direction, they chose someone who will be a “yes person” instead.

On Thursday the Wicomico County GOP put out a somewhat lengthy press release, signed by all nine members:

The Wicomico County Republican Central Committee is deeply concerned that the State of Maryland is increasingly seizing control of Wicomico County Schools and ignoring the wishes of Wicomico citizens. Let’s look at a few recent developments.

During the recent General Assembly Session the State decided it can now dictate how much Wicomico County will spend on its schools, regardless of how much our elected Wicomico County Council believes we can afford. If the Council disagrees with the State, the State will simply bypass the county’s General Fund and send money directly to the Wicomico Board of Education.

The members of the Board of Education are appointed by Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley. As a consequence, approximately half of the County budget is controlled by individuals who are not directly accountable to the citizens of the County.

For decades Republican and Democratic applicants for the Board of Education submitted applications to their respective County Central Committees.  The Central Committees interviewed their applicants, and submitted their recommendations to the Governor. Yet this tradition has been circumvented by Governor O’Malley, who has regularly ignored recommendations from the Republican Central Committee. Worse, last year we learned the Democratic Central Committee was interviewing and recommending Republican applicants!

Earlier this year the Republican Central Committee vetted six individuals for a school board opening and recommended three well-qualified individuals to the Governor.  Kim Hudson wasn’t among our choices, nor did she even submit her name to us for consideration. Instead, Martin O’Malley completely ignored the local input he received. Unbelievably, two people from the governor’s appointments office, who may or may not have ever set foot in our county, conducted telephone interviews with the applicants – and that was the extent of the evaluation process.

It is this complete lack of local input that showcases the absolute imperative for a locally elected school board. The Wicomico County School Board should be directly accountable to the citizens of the county, not to the Governor! Will Annapolis attempt next to decide who should be our Sheriff, our State’s Attorney, or even the members of County Council?

We do not believe the Governor should be making these educational decisions, nor should the political parties’ Central Committees. We believe the citizens of Wicomico County deserve an opportunity to vote in a referendum to determine whether we want to remain one of the few Maryland counties with a Board of Education appointed by the Governor, or if we want to have a Board of Education with elected members. Our Virginia neighbors in Northampton County will have their referendum on this very issue on November 6, but the citizens of Wicomico County will not. Why?

As it stands now, Norm Conway, Rudy Cane, and Rick Pollitt believe our Governor and faceless interviewers can make better decisions than Wicomico citizens regarding the education of Wicomico County’s children. For the past two Legislative Sessions, these individuals and the Maryland Democratic Party have deliberately prevented Wicomico County from conducting such a referendum.

It’s long past time for the people of Wicomico County to rise up and condemn this misuse of political power. The people of Wicomico County need to tell these politicians to stand aside and let the people discuss, debate, and then decide the best course of action for our county.

A referendum to determine what the citizens desire is but the first step in the process. Each of us should ask why the Democrats are opposed to the citizens of our county making such a choice.

(Signed by all nine members of the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee.)

So that’s the “official” response, to which I’m going to add my two cents. First of all, as a press release, this was way too long – it should have been one page. But the points made are still valid.

Of all the Republicans who could have been selected to the Wicomico County Board of Education, practically the last one we needed was the co-founder of that collective group of spoiled brats who bill themselves “Parents in Action.” It’s like handing the WCBOE a blank check and saying, “here you go…we really don’t care what the results of the spending are because all that is wrong with the county’s schools can be magically solved with new, vastly expensive buildings.” If you protest otherwise, you’re branded as being anti-child; they screech “but we can’t draw business without a great quality of life and school system!”

Okay, I’ll bite. Which building will you let fall apart next? Let another one go to pot and the state will help us build a replacement, right? If I’m wrong, prove it by creating a leaner school system and a plan to get the most use out of our educational infrastructure. I’m aware the state won’t pay for renovations but state dollars are still money out of our collective pockets.

But enough about Hudson, what’s done is done. I’m sure she was set hip to the mindset of the Republican Central Committee, which was looking for more of a leader and watchdog on the WCBOE. So she – and apparently a number of others – went on their own through the process, eschewing the established tradition. Obviously for her it paid off; meanwhile the Democrats went ahead and reappointed their previous nominees. Except for the two recently reappointed, the other five are eligible for a second term once their time is up.

We may go through the process next year on our end because the next member whose term expires is Larry Dodd, a Republican appointed in 2008. (I don’t recall if he was one of our choices; John Bartkovich ran the party differently back then.) And it’s more than likely Dodd would be reappointed even if we sent other names to the governor for consideration. If you didn’t like the job he did, well, that’s just too bad. The same goes for the other five on the school board whose terms expire between now and 2016. Just as the rest of the Central Committee, I would rather see the people decide.

Yes, we may have gotten a Kim Hudson because she has a free bully pulpit in the Daily Times. But perhaps our three nominees would have joined her on the WCBOE to push it in a more proper direction. We won’t know, though, until the state gives us the chance to find out. Three people stand in the way of thousands.

Wicomico GOP submits three names for school board

With the resignation of Michelle Wright from the Wicomico County Board of Education effective June 30, it became incumbent upon us as a Central Committee to select her replacement. Fortunately, we had six well-qualified candidates who stepped up to the plate and turned in their applications to replace her.

Now I can’t speak for the committee as a whole, but among the things I was personally looking for was someone who would be a fiscal watchdog and who didn’t take kindly to those who say things have to be done a certain way “because that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Luckily, we submitted the names of a trio who I believe will fit that bill and I’m pleased to say the overwhelming majority of the rest of the group felt the same way about all three.

We selected the following three applicants, listed in alphabetical order:

Cathy Keim would bring a unique perspective to the role because she knows how to educate children as a homeschooling parent. And you really can’t argue with the success she’s had, since four out of five of her children have at least a bachelor’s degree and the other is currently pursuing one. Three have master’s degrees and one has obtained his doctorate. She’s proof that providing a quality education is not just about money, and that’s a viewpoint this board sorely needs now.

Marc Kilmer is a Senior Fellow with The Maryland Public Policy Institute, which is a reform-minded group when it comes to education. He’s also involved in local government as a member of the Charter Review Committee and, more importantly, a parent to a young child who will soon be of school age. With a background in shaping policy through questioning what works with current rules and – more importantly – what doesn’t, we believed Kilmer would be an excellent addition to the Board of Education because he could better advocate for needed change at higher levels from the inside if selected.

While our other two nominees come from outside the world of education, Ann Suthowski was a teacher for over thirty years and has been active in the Salisbury community for decades. Having worked with her on the Central Committee for a couple years now, I can guarantee you she won’t be shy about making her opinions known. More importantly, she knows enough people in the local educational community that she shouldn’t have a learning curve if selected.

In short, we sent three who we believed were well-qualified applicants in special and unique ways to the governor’s office. Whether any of them will be selected is anyone’s guess.

Obviously this once again brings up the question of an elected school board. We had the privilege of sitting and listening to a total of six applicants who brought their own ideas and experiences to the table in an effort to obtain a seat that none of them may get. All the eight of us who voted on the matter (Suthowski did not participate in the balloting) did was, in a sense, a primary election. Even more frightening is that there’s really one vote on the final ballot, and that’s the governor through his Secretary of Appointments – the same woman who gave us our state’s gerrymandering.

And while it’s true we actually got our wish in the last go-round, the circumstances were much different because Michelle Wright was seeking reappointment and who could say no to Carolyn Elmore, the widow of the late Delegate? Moreover, it’s my understanding that the Democrats have vacancies on their side as well. But who says their nominees will be as qualified as ours are? For all we know they could be absolute political hacks, but it won’t be up to the people to make that decision – instead, it will be a small group of insiders in both Salisbury and Annapolis who decides the composition of a body which controls nearly $170 million when all sources are considered. That, my friends, is just wrong.

While I enjoy serving on the Central Committee, I would not mind having my load lightened by taking the decision of who to nominate for these open positions taken out of my hands (and more importantly the hands of the governor, regardless of which party he or she represents) and placed among the people where it rightfully belongs. We believe we got the choices right, but I’d also put my faith in the people of this county to make a wise choice as well and create a position where accountability is both possible and required.

Wright to leave Wicomico BOE

And the system grinds down another would-be participant.

Last year, we were surprised to find Governor O’Malley selected the two Republican picks for the Wicomico County Board of Education, incumbent member Robin Wright and former Delegate Carolyn Elmore. But just a year later we will need to find a replacement to finish out Wright’s five-year term.

While the published report came out Wednesday, I was actually aware of this about a week earlier. But I chose to keep it under my hat because I didn’t have permission to divulge the reason she decided to leave; now that I have seen it in the public realm I have my take on it. The Daily Times changed the actual text of the letter, though – this is from the copy of the letter I received as a member of the Republican Central Committee:

The financial disclosure requires very personal information about my family members, our family business, and business partners to be made available to the public. Many of our media outlets are uncaring with such information and would not be responsible for how information is released and distributed. I hope you understand my first responsibility is to protect my family and our business. (Emphasis mine.)

The part in bold was missing from the news item with a different sentence in its place, and that omission from the Daily Times story is quite important. Obviously we aren’t looking for people to enrich themselves on the public dime – although far too many seem to – and there are some good reasons to see the financial dealings of those who we entrust with the taxpayers’ money. But too often this information can become part of a partisan witch hunt or used to divide a candidate from his or her constituency. Wright’s family has a successful business and it’s obvious she would like to keep it that way.

A further effect, though, is one of discouraging good candidates from stepping up. Just like Wright, a person who is successful in business may see the ethics requirements and how available they are to people and simply say “forget it.” Seeing how the local newspaper of record may have played fast and loose with the intent of what was said in order to protect their interests, there’s no telling what devious outcomes are possible with someone’s ethics information.

I would also like to clear up a misconception on the part of the Daily Times staff. In the case of a vacancy in a Republican seat on the Board of Education, it is the Republican Central Committee who makes the selection – not both central committees, as the Daily Times implies. The Democrats tried to play this game last year, too – we Republicans can select a pool of qualified candidates on our own, thank you, so your help is neither needed nor desired. I don’t recall you ever asking us for input when Democratic vacancies occur. I could think of some good Democrats to add to various boards, except the problem is they keep switching over to the GOP because their former political party abandoned them on their pell-mell leftward slide.

If Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated and minor party voters want input on our Board of Education, all we have to do is adopt an elected school board. We can blame the Democrats (particularly local Delegates Norm Conway and Rudy Cane) for thwarting our chance of bringing that to fruition in the next two years.

In the here and now, though, we have a school board member to replace. Because Wright’s resignation isn’t effective until June 30, it’s fairly likely we will begin the discussion of selecting her replacement at our next Central Committee meeting June 4. Hopefully the prospect of filling out ethics forms won’t scare off good candidates.

WCRC meeting – April 2012

The complaints were flying fast and furious at tonight’s meeting – not about those running the meeting or featured speaker County Councilman Bob Culver, but about a system of uncaring state government seemingly devoted to the notion of forcing us into oblivion here in the hinterlands.

After handling the normal mundane business at hand, Bob began his remarks by making light of the fact he “made the paper and Grapevine all in one week.” As he’d mentioned before, the last year-plus on County Council had been challenging and interesting at the same time, and he praised fellow Council member Gail Bartkovich for her help on picking through the budget. In fact, this Council edition has a “great dynamic,” assessed Culver.

They had been presented two budgets for FY2013: one billed by County Executive Rick Pollitt as the “doomsday” budget had around $7 million in cuts in case the state’s maintenance of effort rules would apply with no new revenue, while the other “relief” budget restored those cuts and instead grew the Board of Education by 2 percent. Culver correctly pegged these budgets, particularly the “doomsday” edition, as an “end run to remove the revenue cap” with the assistance of Delegate Norm “14 Million Dollar” Conway. (Note I made up the name for him, not Bob.) Bob also saw the income tax increase county payers will endure (from 3.1% to 3.2%) as “political blackmail” made necessary by state mandates.

And while state leaders dithered over the Prince George’s County casinos that Senate President Mike Miller wants vs. the revenue enhancements Martin O’Malley desires, we in Wicomico County are still saddled with a lot of bad legislation. Take the new residential sprinkler law which will add between $7,000 and $20,000 to the cost of a new home for example. Or consider the septic bill, which affects farmers because their property values and available credit decrease.

Moreover, the budget only works by withdrawing from the rainy day fund, of which only about $12.2 million is currently not otherwise spoken for. There is “no chance in hell” we can afford a $14 million hit, said Bob, although “we could have made $7 million.” But when the county has lost $800 million in assessed value since 2010, things get more difficult. And while new county administrator Wayne Strasburg is a “breath of fresh air,” Wayne also believes we need at least a 7 cent per $100 increase in the property tax for each of the next three years, said Culver.

In addition, Bob believed we dodged a bullet for now with the failure of the teacher pension shift that the counties lobbied against. But it was only a matter of time before that shoe dropped and Culver thought we should begin planning for that eventuality now.

When asked about the fate of the elected school board, Bob was blunt: “Mr. (Rudy) Cane killed it.” Bob was told in no uncertain terms it would not advance while Rudy was chair of the county delegation.

At this point Delegate Charles Otto got into the conversation, blasting the maintenance of effort bill as a “ridiculous, unconstitutional thing.” The only thing we’d have a special session for, continued Otto, would be to raise $500 million in taxes.

Hearing the grumbling that there wasn’t much we could do about the situation, Cathy Keim begged to differ. She pointed out that Election Integrity Maryland was training poll watchers, which we would need in various areas of the state. We could also work on the petition and referendum she was collecting signatures for.

That was echoed by Central Committee member John Palmer, who also announced that the signatures being collected were also being made into a handy database of conservative and right-leaning Marylanders which could be useful for future efforts. Regarding our County Council, Palmer assessed it as “six Republicans (with) three acting like Republicans.”

County Council member Joe Holloway chimed in that the Bennett Middle vote “decided the fate” of the 7 cent property tax increase. By voting to spend that additional money, the Council was left with no choice but to max out to the revenue cap this time around.

As it turned out, Culver was the catalyst for a wide-ranging discussion of solutions ranging from activism to prayer, as we were reminded by one observer that National Prayer Day comes a week from Thursday. “God is judging our nation,” she warned. We need “more prayer warriors.”

After engaging in a mea culpa for an error he made in his most recent Daily Times column, Dave Parker mentioned the state budget in his Central Committee report; he marveled that “uncontrollable Republicans” were being blamed for the non-passage of the budget Martin O’Malley would have preferred. O’Malley left out the inconvenient truth that Democrats in Annapolis can pass whatever they please without a single GOP vote. Martin O’Malley “wants to be Obama,” Parker believed.

But Dave was disturbed by one earmark which was passed, despite the fact he’ll receive some tangible benefit. The state wrote itself $135 million more debt so Norm Conway could brag about bringing a new library to Salisbury University. (Gee, it should be under construction just in time for Conway’s re-election campaign, you think?)

Longtime political campaign organizer Bonnie Luna announced she was at it again, as she will soon begin the local Mitt Romney campaign with a kickoff organizational meeting sometime next month. Dan Bongino also has a local coordinator in rising young political operative Shawn Jester.

But I wanted to wrap up with one final travesty in an evening that seemed to be permeated with doom and gloom for some reason.

After a number of years of trying, the Wicomico County Republican Club finally set up a scholarship to be given to a high school senior who qualifies in several different areas, including (naturally) being a registered Republican. It’s not a huge scholarship by any means, but $500 can be a help to a young student. (I know it would have helped me thirty years ago when I began college.)

We found out today that the Wicomico County Board of Education would not list it in their list of scholarships, for the stated reason that the recipient has to be a registered Republican. Now there are other stipends which are restricted for other various reasons, such as the applicant has to be a minority, female, pursue a particular career major, or even be a wrestler, but apparently those sorts of restrictions are just fine. This tends to follow the same logic which would allow a non-believer to head up a Christian school group. But the good news is the scholarship will soon be on the Delmarva Education Foundation website, which is a relief for a conservative student (including homeschooled) who would like to avoid the federal student loan scam if at all possible.

So the meeting wasn’t all bad. Hopefully in a couple months we’ll get to meet our recipient; perhaps he or she can attend our next meeting on June 25. Since the fourth Monday in May is Memorial Day we will skip May and have our next confab in June.

McDermott urges elected school board action

As do I…

On March 15th, 2012, the House Ways and Means Committee heard HB 966 – Wicomico County – Board of Education – Selection of Members – Straw Ballot. This bill, sponsored by Delegate Michael A. McDermott (Worcester and Wicomico Counties), would simply allow the people of Wicomico County to voice their opinions about the selection method of the members on the Wicomico County Board of Education. It proposes a non-binding referendum that would ask whether voters favor changing the selection method of school board members from being appointed by the Governor to a direct election by county voters.

What has happened since the hearing on March 15th? Absolutely nothing. In response to this, Delegate McDermott is asking the citizens of Wicomico County to urge the Ways and Means Committee Members to vote on this bill. In particular, please contact the Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman:

Delegate Sheila E. Hixson

Phone Number: 410-841-3469 or 301-858-3469 or 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3469

Address: Room 131, House Office Building, Annapolis, MD 21401-1912

E-mail: sheila.hixson.annapolis@house.state.md.us

Fax: (410) 841-3777, (301) 858-3777

Delegate McDermott is also asking the citizens of Wicomico County to contact the members of the Wicomico County Delegation who did not support this bill:

Delegate Norman Conway

Phone Number: 410-841-3407 or 301-858-3407 or 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3407

Address: Room 121, House Office Building, 6 Bladen St., Annapolis, MD 21401

E-mail: norman.conway@house.state.md.us

Fax: (410) 841-3416, (301) 858-3416

Delegate Rudolph Cane

Phone Number: 410- 841-3427 or 301-858-3427 or 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3427

Address: Room 364, House Office Building, 6 Bladen St., Annapolis, MD 21401

E-mail: rudolph.cane@house.state.md.us

Fax: (410) 841-3780 or (301) 858-3780

If the people of Wicomico County want the right to simply ask a question at the ballot box, they must act now!

Unfortunately, this hasn’t been a very successful year for those in the four counties who are still saddled with appointed school boards to make headway on the problem. While some of these bills are looking for more than a straw ballot, neither the one bill regarding the Baltimore City Schools nor a plethora of seven bills which would affect the composition of the Anne Arundel County board have gained anymore traction than the Wicomico County effort. In fact, two of the Senate bills for Anne Arundel County were killed in committee. Moreover, it’s also worth pointing out that the latest successes have been only to secure a partially-appointed, partially-elected “hybrid” board, which means the state still has their fingers in the local pie in those counties.

But there is one bill which has cleared the House, a bill which would change Baltimore County’s school board from a 12-person board appointed by the Governor to a 10-person board elected by district. So it can be done.

There are key differences between the Baltimore County effort and ours, though. One key distinction is that the sponsorship is bipartisan, under the Baltimore County delegation. This is why the lack of local Democratic support this year is hurting us – bear in mind all of our delegation was on board last year, but Rudy Cane and Norm Conway instead decided to listen to a tiny minority who was worried their outsized power would be eroded. (Interestingly, Cane was for the Baltimore County bill while Conway did not vote in a 124-8 tally.)

In essence, there are three (perhaps four) people holding up the opportunity to allow our voices to be heard. One is County Executive Rick Pollitt, who insists on ridiculous demands that we pony up thousands of signatures to express our support when it could be done much more easily through a straw ballot.

The second pair are Delegates Cane and Conway, who refused to get behind this bill and perhaps are convincing the fourth (Delegate Sheila Hixson) to not pull it out of her desk drawer so her committee can vote on it. Most likely it would pass the committee (and for that matter, the General Assembly) without a problem.

We have talked about this issue for at least a decade, and it’s time to get it resolved. And it may be worthwhile to impress on our local recalcitrant delegation that this could appear now, when they are not on the ballot, or it can appear on the ballot on 2014 when they’re presumably running for re-election. It’s their call, because we won’t forget who is holding up this process.

A sneak attack (on our county taxpayers)

Two similar (but not identical, thus not crossfiled) bills have been introduced in the General Assembly this term, measures which would thwart the will of voters in Wicomico County and elsewhere in Maryland.

First among them was SB740, which was introduced February 3 by Senator Richard Madeleno of Montgomery County, which is one of the counties that inhibits property tax collections in some manner. (The others are Anne Arundel, Prince George’s, Talbot, and Wicomico.) It’s a bill which would simply allow counties which have this sort of cap to circumvent it, provided the money goes to the county’s school board.

But HB1412, which was introduced on February 28 – and got the extraordinary benefit of a hearing just two days after introduction – would do grave damage to the financial bottom line of several counties, most particularly Wicomico. It’s notable that Delegate Norm “Five Dollar” Conway is a co-sponsor of the bill, which is led by Delegate John Bohanon of St. Mary’s County and also backed by members from Baltimore City and Baltimore, Howard, and Montgomery counties.

Apparently this will affect Wicomico County in two ways: first of all, their maintenance of effort (MOE) won’t come down to a more realistic level based on tax revenues – for FY2012 they were over $14 million short of the $50 million MOE goal, the largest percentage of any of the state’s 24 counties – and our MOE will likely automatically increase up to 2.5% each year after FY2015 because we’ll almost certainly be considered a “below average” county. At a starting point of $50 million, that’s an extra $1 million we would have to come up with (or roughly 1.5 cents per $100 extra on property tax rates, based on what the county currently receives) annually. That’s also faster than our revenue cap would allow, since it’s based on an increase of no more than two percent.

But the other problem the bill will create is shorting other areas of the county’s budget which depend on the state – according to the fiscal note for HB1412, “(i)f a county does not fully fund MOE and has not received a waiver, the county’s income tax revenues will be intercepted and sent to the school board.” In other words, we lose the local control we have on state funding.

Now some may argue that because the state is providing the funds, they should call the tune. I don’t disagree with that, but if they want to play that game I’d like to see an opt-out provision. Call their bluff: okay, if you want to take away our local control of the money then we don’t want to send you our taxes. Obviously that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

And the problem most people have with the local Board of Education isn’t one of necessity. Few would argue that we don’t need public education as an option.

But there are a lot of us who feel money should follow the child, regardless of where the parents wish to send them to school. By bringing that element of competition into it, schools are forced to improve and provide more bang for the buck. Certainly I’m aware that Wicomico County schools have been studied and found to spend a below-average amount on administrative costs, but it certainly seems to me that the things the Board of Education likes to project as cuts are the ones which provide the greatest shock value. Yet what would our financial situation be like if we simply increased the average class size to 25 students? How much help would that provide?

I seem to recall that once upon a time our County Executive vowed he would do zero-based budgeting as he did as Fruitland’s city manager, beginning each year from scratch. It doesn’t seem to work that way at the Board of Education, which seems to assume they are entitled to every dime they can extract out of our pockets and then some.

And, needless to say, this bill would also provide impetus to opponents of the revenue cap to push for its removal – “the children are hurting,” they’ll whine in a tone which will remind me of those who are dismissed as the “Bennett babes.” But that squeaky wheel got the grease, didn’t it?

I suspect the long-term answer, however, may be for Maryland to give local districts taxing authority like they have in most other states. Certainly this has its drawbacks – for example, my alma mater district derives revenue from both a local income tax and a local property tax, which is somewhat rare among Ohio districts – but at least there may be a little bit of a chance for local control and reform. (The reason for this dual taxation practice is that a vast percentage of the district consists of low-value agricultural land but many of the families on the eastern edge of the district have reasonably high-paying jobs in nearby Toledo and moved to the school district for its lower property taxes.) If a school board isn’t doing its fiduciary duty by the taxpayers, the option is there to “starve the beast” until needed changes are made.

I don’t know what the fate of these two bills will be, but if one or both are passed it will change the local financial landscape for the worse. Those on the side of the statists never fail to make everything they do hurt the “country class” like hell, and this will be no exception.

Wicomico school board bill now in House of Delegates

It took a little longer than expected but the companion bill to SB99, the bill which would give Wicomico County voters the opportunity to determine whether they want an elected school board, was introduced in the House yesterday. HB966 is the crossfiled version of the Senate bill.

Unlike last year, when the bills were introduced late in the session, not all of the Wicomico delegation is on board as sponsors. Last year’s SB981 had Senator Jim Mathias as lead sponsor with Senator Rich Colburn as co-sponsor; this time the order is reversed. Delegate Norm Conway was listed as lead sponsor of HB1324 in 2011; this year he’s not on the bill, nor is fellow Democrat Rudy Cane.

Instead, Delegate Mike McDermott is acting as lead sponsor, with co-sponsors Delegates Addie Eckardt, Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, and Charles Otto. It wasn’t prefiled as he promised last year in front of the Wicomico County Republican Club, but I would presume he instead waited as long as he could to see if either local House Democrat would come on board. Alas, it was in vain, so he ended up introducing it on the last day before it would have been forced to jump through the additional hoop of the Rules Committee.

More troubling to me is the lack of progress on the Senate version. Originally slated to have a hearing on January 25, that was cancelled a week beforehand. A new hearing was scheduled for next week, but again scrubbed.

I think those who are interested need to put something on the to-do list for this coming week: contact the leaders of the Senate Education Health and Environmental Committee and House Ways and Means Committee and encourage them to get the bills moving.

  • Senator Joan Carter Conway (Chair, EHE): (410) 841-3145
  • Senator Roy P. Dyson (Vice-Chair, EHE): (410) 841-3673
  • Delegate Sheila E. Hixson (Chair, W&M): (301) 858-3469
  • Delegate Samuel I. Rosenberg (Vice-Chair, W&M): (410) 841-3297

Certainly it may be of assistance as well to coordinate our efforts with Republican members of these committees as well:

  • Senator J.B. Jennings (EHE): (410) 841-3706
  • Senator Edward R. Reilly (EHE): (410) 841-3568
  • Senator Bryan W. Simonaire (EHE): (410) 841-3658
  • Delegate Kathryn L. Afzali (W&M): (301) 858-3800
  • Delegate Joseph C. Boteler III (W&M): (410) 841-3365
  • Delegate Mark N. Fisher (W&M): (410) 841-3231
  • Delegate Ron George (W&M): (410) 841-3439
  • Delegate Glen Glass (W&M): (410) 841-3257
  • Delegate LeRoy E. Myers, Jr. (W&M): (301) 858-3321
  • Delegate Andrew A. Serafini (W&M):  (301) 858-3447

There’s already going to be quite a bit on our electoral plate this year, but there’s always room for more. Hopefully in 2014 we can begin to turn over control of our school board from some unelected bureaucrat in Annapolis doing the bidding of the governor to those we select at the ballot box. As I envision it, we would have a school board which mirrors County Council (5 representing districts and 2 at-large) elected in a non-partisan election where everyone has a fair shot. It may not necessarily reflect this in the end, but the time for choosing needs to arrive soon.

WCRC meeting – January 2012

It was one of those meeting where we had a featured speaker, but someone else stole the show. That’s not to show any disrespect to Cathy Keim, who ably represented Election Integrity Maryland, but a testament to the hot-button issue of the day.

With the meeting conducted by Second Vice-President Marc Kilmer in Larry Dodd’s absence, the meeting had a little bit of a different feel to it. Maybe it was the new year. Regardless, we went through the usual preludes and club business, also taking a moment to thank Ann Suthowski for her handling of the club’s Christmas Party last month before turning over the meeting to Cathy for her presentation.

She introduced her group, Election Integrity Maryland, as a nonpartisan watchdog group which was an offshoot of the True the Vote organization based in Texas.

In essence, what she had to share was startling – but not surprising. There’s no question that those who favor common sense steps like photo voter ID, proof of citizenship, tightened registration rules, the elimination of same-day registration, and a shorter early voting period are accused of fomenting disenfranchisement at best, and racism, homophobia, bigotry, and the remaining laundry list of liberal insults which normally follow once they can’t stand on the facts. And they can’t, instead trying to portray this as a “GOP war on voting.”

On the contrary, a Rasmussen Poll found 82% favor voter ID, no decrease in turnout has been reported in states requiring voter ID, and laws to safeguard against a mass registration dump on the eve of the election (in order to make it more likely fraudulent registrations are allowed) make it easier on legitimate voters to be registered.

Yet there are still rampant examples of the system being tampered with. As a recent example, in the New Hampshire primary, filmmaker James O’Keefe enlisted volunteers who entered and asked for ballots representing voters who had recently died to prove a point, carefully not representing themselves as the deceased voter. Because New Hampshire doesn’t ask for a photo ID, there was little chance a person who actually wanted to misrepresent himself as a voter couldn’t get away with it.

Cathy also outlined the Secretary of State Project, which is a 527 organization devoted to electing the chief elections official in each state where that post controls the balloting. Its biggest success was in Minnesota, where their Secretary of State (elected with backing from the SoS Project) conducted the 2008 recount that cost Republican Norm Coleman a U.S. Senate seat, given instead to Sen. Al Franken. Prior to that election, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who was elected in 2006, ended a ballot reconciliation program and refused to investigate claims of registration fraud.

Some of the more immediate goals of Election Integrity Maryland are to assure accurate voter rolls, promote an active citizenry with an interest in the voting system, conduct poll watcher training (for anyone, regardless of affiliation), and work on legislative measures which promote a clean and fair election. Along with the poll watcher training, they also seek volunteers to sift through the voter registration database and help eliminate duplicates or people registered at phony addresses. On a national level, they are also assisting with verification of signatures in the Wisconsin recall, since some have stated they signed petitions dozens of times. Election Integrity Maryland is a 501(c)(4) group so it can be involved in political activities.

All in all, Cathy put together a nice and informative presentation. But Joe Holloway rose to speak, and that’s when things got very interesting.

Joe stated up front that he “needed to see some friendly faces.” He and three other Republicans on County Council had come under withering criticism for their proper vote to hold off on building Bennett Middle School until the county was on more solid fiscal footing. Fellow County Council member Bob Culver, who was also at the meeting, said “I’ve never been spoken to like I have over this (Bennett Middle School) issue.” He had opined that we should explore the cost of remodeling the existing building instead.

Yet Holloway was clear on his intentions. “Bennett Middle School will be built,” said Joe, “but we want it done right.” However, he listened to four members of County Council and reluctantly agreed to hold a special meeting to reconsider the subject. (That meeting, held earlier today, is the subject of this update to a previous post.)

Holloway wasn’t as quick to approve the school, though, because a lot of the “new” financial information they were presented was based on a number of assumptions which he was determined to challenge.

And what impact would a new school have on county finances? Well, Holloway believed that around 80% of what we have bonded are education-related projects, and Joe also reminded us the new school would affect both the capital and operating budgets, since we pay millions in debt service annually out of the operating fund.

One questioner reminded us of the prospect of having to adopt teacher pensions at a county level, and another wondered if it was simply a tactic to have the revenue cap removed. But former County Executive candidate Joe Ollinger challenged Holloway to name a figure he could live with. Regardless of the figure, Bob Culver bluntly assessed that “we’re going to have to raise taxes.”

But Central Committee member John Palmer would have none of it. “I’m disappointed that County Council can’t move a Republican agenda,” he said. He’ll certainly be disheartened by today’s vote.

Speaking of the Central Committee, Dave Parker reminded us of the upcoming Lincoln Day Dinner, but also predicted rough times were ahead for the county. “It’s going to be worse than Martin O’Malley is telling us,” said Parker, and County Council is being “snookered” by those who would “misuse political power.”

However, Parker had some better news as he was promoting the Republican message both in a PAC-14 forum which featured Democratic Central Committee member Harry Basehart in a discussion of the differences between the two parties, and a regular point-counterpoint feature in the Daily Times leading up to the election. (I’m not the only self-promoter here.)

Mark McIver spoke on behalf of Congressman Andy Harris, who was unopposed in the primary and would use the advantage given to him by redistricting to help other GOP causes and candidates. “Andy wants to build the party,” McIver said. Mark also announced Andy had become a lifetime member of the WCRC.

A pair of relatively new faces were present as well, as Donnie Scholl and Charles Landherr stopped in to represent Dan Bongino’s campaign, which is promoting itself around the region. Bongino was a guest at our June meeting last year.

Finally, we had nominations for our 2012 slate of officers, and unless someone steps up to challenge that slate at our February 27 meeting, that group of five holdovers and two new participants will be the 2012 cadre of officers for the WCRC.

Why add to the debt?

Obviously this post I cite is an oversimplification of the educational approach needed for many children, but I thought it was appropriate to point this out given the fact a small group of parents – backed by an all-powerful school board and sympathetic County Executive and newspaper – are putting big-time pressure on our County Council to approve the debt necessary to build a new middle school.

But Richard F. Miniter, a writer posting on the American Thinker website, makes the case that education can be as simple as applying a little discipline and effort, given the vast library now available to anyone who has an e-reader and cares enough about their child to make sure they learn. And there is a time savings, as Miniter writes:

It also sums down to a little block of time because without having to get ready for the school bus; the bus ride; dispersing to classroom; disciplinary issues in classrooms; having to raise your hand to go to the bathroom; noisy, chaotic hallways scenes every fifty minutes; noisy, chaotic lunch periods; announcements; fire drills; lectures about bullying, respecting alternative lifestyles, or strangers; then preparing for the bus ride home, followed by homework, one can do a better job with a child in two hours than a traditional school classroom setting can in eight.

Now extrapolate that to the building itself. If one can learn in the small space of time allotted to learning at home, it can also be assumed that learning can be achieved in a regular school building, regardless of the age.

Continue reading “Why add to the debt?”

The 99 percent solution

You know, I haven’t been following this whole “Occupy Wall Street” protest all that closely because, to be perfectly honest, I work for a living (unlike them.)

It must be nice to be able to go protest all day without a visible means of support, since one has to assume that for them to hang out at Wall Street for days on end they must not have jobs, unless they’re selling their bodies or some such act. Judging by what many say they must be getting a government check of some sort, probably unemployment benefits.

On the other hand, I have two jobs outside the home and writing clients I do work for inside the home, plus I run this website, volunteer in my community, and try to spend a little quality time with someone special when I can. Now, would that make me a member of the REAL 99 percent?

Perhaps those playing anarchist in various cities around the country don’t understand that demands like a “free” education or forgiveness of debt would make Atlas shrug in a heartbeat. I was reading their idea of a “fair” salary for everyone and saw that many millions of Americans would take a tremendous pay cut. Do you REALLY think union employees would agree to that? And why would you start a business in order to take a $10,000 salary when you have to pay your hired laborers twice that much?

I guess the first thing not being taught in schools is basic economics, because it’s obvious whoever came up with this redistribution scheme has flunked the course. Nor do they understand human nature.

Continue reading “The 99 percent solution”

Quoted in print

I bring this up because I find the venue interesting.

It so happens I was quoted in yesterday’s Coastal Dispatch out of Ocean City in an article by Shawn J. Soper regarding the prospect of an elected school board in Wicomico County. And while the quote wasn’t perfect (or perhaps I didn’t read my statement accurately) Soper conveyed the point I was trying to make, so kudos to him.

One has to ask, though, why an Ocean City paper is picking up something the Daily Times chose to ignore as they covered the budget hearing at Parkside instead. I’ll grant that the school board fight is somewhat old news but so are budget troubles. It’s just that the sob story at Parkside was almost guaranteed to attract a big crowd.

Yet one story actually goes well with the other. If we had an elected school board there would be more accountability for the budgetary process, and perhaps fiscally conservative board members would make the budget work under the constraints of the numbers given to them by the County Executive without a lot of wailing or gnashing of teeth. As it is, we have the emotional outpouring of parents and students who see the first fallback option given by the board is cutting sports and other extracurricular activities. Tell me that’s not a scare tactic.

It seems to me that over $11,000 per pupil is a bit much when parochial schools can charge less. (Yes, I understand that public schools have to take the special education students and troublemakers, but their numbers shouldn’t add that much to the budget.) After all, what is their goal – would a public school student get a better education if only we spent $15,000 per pupil? What about $25,000 – is that enough for their needs?

The sad truth is that no one knows exactly what a quality education costs because it has little to do with money. If money were the sole determiner, homeschooled children would be blithering idiots; instead, they generally turn out to be among the best and brightest. On the other hand, inner-city districts would be cranking out the next generation of doers like the late Steve Jobs because they spent a ton of money, but we know that’s not the case.

And the tactic of scheduling the budget meeting at a time when it’s well known County Council meets is very questionable on the part of the Board of Education. Surely the Parkside auditorium was open any other night this week, but they chose Tuesday and someone needs to ask the rationale behind that. It seems like this isn’t the way to promote a cooperative effort.

One thing is certain, though – this problem isn’t going away soon. As for the elected school board, all we need is to have the General Assembly do their job without obfuscating the question and we’ll be well on our way. Hear that, Delegate Norm ‘Five Dollar’ Conway?