Around Maryland

The pandemic has exacerbated Maryland’s teacher shortage, a situation that already had been worsening for years. A Maryland State Education Association report released in February showed that a large majority of Maryland teachers surveyed said staff shortages, onerous workload and burnout are serious or very serious concerns, while 60% said the pandemic made them more likely to leave the profession or to retire earlier than planned. To address the problem, four Maryland universities are working to recruit and train Black male teachers, who nationwide make up only 2% of teachers. Meanwhile, in western Maryland, one school is preparing students to teach in rural areas.

The Maryland Department of Human Services launched a new program to help low-income households in the state offset the costs of water and wastewater bills. The Low Income Household Water Assistance Program offers up to $2,000 in assistance, focusing on households whose water bills are 30 days or more past due. “No family or child should go without access to water because of challenges paying bills,” said Department of Human Services Secretary, Lourdes Padilla.

While protests erupted across America following the death of George Floyd and “Defund the police” became a familiar rallying cry of the racial justice movement, Baltimore activist Ray Kelly noticed a key perspective missing from the national debate. He wanted to hear from the people whose lives were at stake: those living in communities most impacted by violent crime, police misconduct, growing poverty and persistent disinvestment — communities like Sandtown-Winchester, the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray died from injuries suffered in police custody five years before the wave of protests that gripped the nation in summer 2020.

About a quarter of Anne Arundel County residents believe crime is the county’s most concerning issue, according to a survey from Anne Arundel Community College. The poll found that 26% of respondents rated crime as the “most important problem facing the residents of Anne Arundel County” this year. Only 13% considered it the top problem last fall when the seriousness of COVID-19 was the most cited issue in the survey. Concern about drugs — the use or sale of illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or use of prescription painkillers for nonmedical purposes — fared similarly with 20% of respondents saying it is the most important issue compared to 9% last fall.

Maryland is set to invest millions in its state parks later this year thanks to a new bill signed into law. The Great Maryland Outdoors Act, passed in March, dedicates funding for the expansion of parks, maintenance and the hiring of permanent employees once the law kicks in on July 1. Delegate Michele Guyton has supported bill from its inception and emphasized the need for children to be outdoors. “The problems that kids are having from sitting in front of the screen — they’re not just because they’re sitting in front of a screen,” Guyton said

Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison told WJZ he welcomes a thorough review of hiring practices following a faulty background check that led to a man with prior gun charges, who was also a person of interest in a homicide, being hired for a top financial job in the department. The mayor has already ordered a thorough investigation into how this employee slipped through the cracks.

Maryland has selected a two-mile-wide corridor at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as the best spot for an additional span, saying it would relieve the most traffic congestion for weekend beachgoers and Eastern Shore commuters, according to a five-and-a-half-year study released Thursday. The Maryland Transportation Authority said its chosen corridor would tie a third span into Route 50 on both sides of the bay. Including feeder roads, it would stretch 22 miles, from an area west of the Severn River Bridge in Anne Arundel County to the U.S. 50/Route 301 split in Queen Anne’s County on the Eastern Shore.