Yesterday the Maryland General Assembly voted to override Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of a bill meant to protect public schools against the privatization agenda of Betsy DeVos.
Maryland has a rightwing Republican Governor, Larry Hogan, who has appointed a pro-privatization state board of education.
But Maryland also has a legislature controlled by Democrats. They hold a veto-proof majority.
The legislature passed an anti-privatization bill called the “Protect Our Schools Act,” intended to block state takeovers and the Trump/DeVos agenda.
Governor Hogan vetoed the bill on Wednesday, saying it would prevent the state from identifying low-performing schools and taking them over (and privatizing them). His appointed state board agreed with him.
Yesterday, the Democratic-controlled legislature overrode Hogan’s veto.
The governor is angry:
The bill [that he vetoed] would set standards for how the state would identify low-performing schools that Hogan says rely too little on standardized tests. And it would prevent the state from taking several actions to improve those schools, including converting them to charter schools, bringing in private management, giving the students vouchers to attend private schools or putting the schools into a special statewide “recovery” school district.
Hogan and members of the state school board argue that the bill would tie their hands as they try to rescue low-performing schools.
Let it be stipulated that neither the governor nor any member of the state school board has EVER rescued a low-performing school.
Congratulations to the educators and parents and students of Maryland for defeating Governor Hogan’s effort to impose the DeVos agenda on the state’s public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Special credit goes to MSEA for its outstanding organizing effort. Working with grassroots individuals and other organizations is a talent that MSEA is using for the good of students and the entire citizenry of the State.
If MSEA’s work spread to other states, there would be hope for democracy, against oligarchs like Koch’s and Gates. Speaking of the latter, the Gates-funded Frontier Set, a program with the goal to “create different institutional delivery systems” for colleges, is supported by the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities -the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities and, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. If the unwashed 90% needed confirmation about how lowly they are viewed, by the self-anointed richest 0.1% reformers, it’s the fact that a third supporter of Frontier Set is the Tides Foundation, which is supported by Underdogs, which is, literally, a group concerned with the welfare of dogs.
Good for Maryland. Great for the Students, Parents, and Teachers. ALL States should start standing up and telling Trump/DeVos to shove it when to comes to privatization of public schools, tell the corporates to take a hike and stay of education, and give the schools back to the professional educators. This should have been done under Obama/Duncan.
This achievement is made more impressive because two members of the Maryland State School Board have national reputations for promoting charter schools while dissing public schools and teachers.
The President of the School Board is Andrew R. Smarick, a Partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to all things charter. He has been a player in the inner circle of Maryland and DC policy making for a long time. He helped to found the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and was a founding board member of 50CAN. 50CAN enlists state and local foundations to campaign for charter schools and closing “failing” public schools. In 2016, 50CAN merged with Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst to push for charter schools, TFAs, and the rest of the agenda to demolish public schools and teacher unions.
Then there is Vice-President Chester E. Finn, Jr., Ed.D., now a a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution (among other conservative think tanks) and Distinguished Senior Fellow and President Emeritus of the Fordham Institute—promoter of charters. He was a founding partner and the senior scholar with the (failed) for-profit Edison Project. Like Smarick, Finn has been on the inside of DC policy making for a long time. He is currently on the board of the National Council on Teacher Quality. The NCTQ provides the (dubious) school and teacher education program ratings to the U.S. News & World Report.
In the Governor’s defense, I think everything that he spews about education is straight from the mouths of Smarick and Finn. I don’t think the Gov has one clue what really goes on in public schools. Our state finances are in such a mess after 8 yrs of a Martin O’Malley administration and that is his main objective. He is a very moderate republican from what I experience living in MD. I generally think he has done a good job so far….except on education policy.
Not knowing what is happening in schools is not a defense. If the governor doesn’t know about public education in his state, he should learn. Stupidity isn’t a defense.
Consider his choices for the state board of education. Not moderate Republicans but ideologues committed to the DeVos agenda.
Keep up the good work. We’ll do lunch sometime after the session.
Michael
Michael A. Butera CEO Association Activision, LLC Consultant Organizational Development
Sent from my iPhone
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You are correct that stupidity is not a defense. He is friends with Smarick and Finn and I believe he just allows them to take control of the education issue. We, in the state of MD have been taxed to death, we have had tax $ moved from 1 fund to another to fund the wealthy….and this is a very “blue” state. Our finances, pension plans and tax structure are a mess! It was former Gov. O’Malley (Dem) who saddled our state with Pearson/PARCC and Common Core. Lots of Democrats have gone crazy with the cash flow in MD and that is where the Governor has his hands full. Not long after he became Governor, Baltimore City was a battle field with the Freddie Gray riots. I have kids in public schools here (Howard County) and I find the Superintendents of various counties to be more problematic when it comes to education reform.
Despite this victory MD is a disaster. We teachers are drowning in state mandates such as Danielson rubrics and SLOs and talent is fleeing the teaching core in droves. My county has two high schools with zero certified math teachers. They are all gone; some to other states and counties but most to other more lucrative careers. The students in most schools have no one to teach them math. The hallways are like a ghost town where math teachers used to roam. Science hallways are not much better. They can’t attract, recruit OR retain teachers in these counties. All new money must go to technology so that PARCC can be delivered online. And remember who is taking these tests: Students who have had no math or science teacher all year! There are a few of us experienced teachers left, filling out growth assessments so that we can pass Evaluations but any new people who come in only view teaching as a temporary stop while they shop for jobs and pay off student loans. The problems in MD are MUCH WORSE THAN I HAVE SEEN anyone describe. A total disaster!
TimothyD….what county? Although I live in affluent Howard county, I find the curriculum just awful. The math in particular is bad. I have to send my kids to tutoring so that they get more than just test prep. The parents in this county don’t get it. They love the test scores and the comparing of students and the rating/ranking of schools. I’m just wondering if it’s like this all over the state?
TimothyD… corporate ed reform is alive and well in the MD schools with all the testing, data nonsense and boiler plate bureaucratic paperwork at every turn! But on the positive side, privatization won’t be able to so easily bulldoze the public schools just yet.