Commentary

High-quality tutoring during the school day may be available to more of Maryland’s students. In February, the Maryland State Department of Education responded to this unique moment in education — one that is defined by unprecedented funding, soaring staff vacancies and widening gaps in student achievement — with Maryland Leads, an innovative, non-competitive grant opportunity designed to incentivize and support its 24 school districts in focusing federal relief funds on evidence-based practices.

Remember when Republicans said that they were going to protect parental rights in regard to the education of our children? They made a big deal about parental rights in making decisions about mask-wearing, vaccinations, school curriculum (especially sex education), and so on. Well, forget about all of that. If your child happens to be transgender, Republicans are now saying that parents don’t know what is best for their children and, in fact, may be guilty of child abuse. For Republicans, the state knows better than parents when it comes to the sex and gender issues of our children.

After reading Josh Kurtz’ “Analysis: The Goldberg Goldman Fallout and the Rocky Shoals of Race for Md. Democrats,” I felt a combination of emotions. I actually started to cry. My husband looked at me and said, “PTSD?” We’ve been married 45 years, and he’s been a constant partner in all politics with me. He knew exactly what was bothering me. He knew that I was processing and examining the results of the campaign that I poured my heart into. He knew that I was thinking about the conversations I had in 2018 in parking lots and in auditoriums and at events across Maryland with powerful elected officials — men I had campaigned for and with for decades telling me, “Ben can’t win.”

In immigration cases, someone can be deprived of their liberty, put behind bars, and moved far away from their homes and family without any right to an attorney. Hundreds of Maryland residents are suffering in ICE detention across the country, forced to fight their immigration case alone, condemned to almost certain deportation — because they cannot afford a lawyer. This vast detention network is run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — an agency with a track record of human rights abuses, which often contracts out to even more dangerous private prison companies.

We already knew that finding a great new leader for the Frederick County Public Schools system was going to be a challenge, but results from a survey of community attitudes toward the system reinforces our concerns. The survey conducted by the search firm the school board has hired to help find a new leader shows significant unhappiness with the county school system by almost every group of stakeholders in the community — except the school administration itself.

Up a Harford County hill, where the world is quiet — no guns, no missiles, no fire, no war — Josh Pons offers a couple of old racehorses a morning treat to get them in a socializing mood. They are both geldings, so, given the business model, I asked the co-owner of the place what purpose geldings serve at Country Life Farm, one of the top thoroughbred breeding grounds in the Mid-Atlantic.

The Maryland General Assembly is leading an effective, sensible, collaborative approach to packaging producer responsibility legislation to develop an effective circular economy for recycling in the state. Packaging producer responsibility legislation is a policy framework to help design and run modernized materials recovery and processing solutions that will drive results.

During World War II, sailors departing ships for shore leave would follow a beacon of light emanating from the steeple of San Pedro United Methodist Church. Upon arriving, they could take a shower, eat a meal prepared in our kitchen, maybe write a letter home. History is never far away when the church you lead, and worship in, was built in 1923. It’s a grand three-story structure with beautiful stained-glass windows and a sanctuary with an open-beam vaulted ceiling that can seat 350. It’s a big church, and over time we have become a small congregation.