Commentary

We are on the threshold of implementing an impressive, all encompassing, long awaited, education funding, and policy shifting Education Reform Plan. To do so, the governor must appoint a seven-member Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) for six-year terms which shall, by law, “reflect, to the extent practicable, the geographic, racial, ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity of the State.” The goal of the reform is to prepare our children for what is to come.

The following is the text of Andrea Chamblee’s prepared oral remarks for Tuesday’s sentencing hearing for the Capital Gazette shooter. Chamblee is the widow of John McNamara, who was one of the five Capital Gazette staff members murdered in the news organization’s office on June 28, 2018. Thank you for having us here. I know all our stories will be different even though they have this common thread. I’ve told versions of my story many times, but I haven’t really opened up to talk about what this cruelty has done to me personally.

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing recession have hit older workers especially hard. Today’s economy is simultaneously pushing out millions who were counting on their paychecks to survive, while trapping millions of others in jobs because they can’t afford to retire. These seemingly contradictory trends are part of a grim forecast for aging Americans. Older workers (defined as 55 and up) increasingly fear they won’t have a job well into their 60s. Even if they are still employed, that uncertainty undermines a person’s ability to negotiate their deserved pay and proper conditions, even after a lifetime of work.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unvaccinated Americans are almost five times more likely to contract COVID-19, 10 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 11 times more likely to die from COVID-19, than the vaccinated. Most of the vaccinated people getting very sick are the elderly or those recently vaccinated who have not yet developed appropriate immunity.

It’s not every day that a city of 32,693 on the lower Eastern Shore gets a chance to help set the standards for police reform in this country, but that’s exactly where Salisbury finds itself this week. On Monday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors announced that the Salisbury Police Department was the only small city in the country to be named a recipient of a 2021 Police Reform and Racial Justice Grant.

While climate-induced natural disasters strike worldwide, Maryland utilities are investing more than a billion dollars in new fossil-fuel infrastructure. These investments — extending gas service areas and replacing pipes — are part of a last-ditch effort to benefit shareholders and make it more expensive to stop burning fossil fuels. To put the scale of current spending in perspective, what is planned now and through 2023 will roughly double the natural gas infrastructure Maryland gas customers are paying for compared to 2018. The Maryland General Assembly has encouraged this spending, and the Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved it.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent report, which found that global temperatures are now higher than at any point in the past 125,000 years as a result of human activity, has served as a harsh wake-up call. To address this pressing issue, lawmakers in Washington have allocated billions of dollars for climate-related projects throughout the bipartisan infrastructure package, and Democrats plan to allocate even more in their $3.5 trillion budget-reconciliation bill.

Dear “Personal Choicers,” As long as unvaccinated people provide a significant breeding ground for COVID-19 virus variants, medical care for those seriously ill with coronavirus will be diminished. Rationing hospital patient admissions has become urgently necessary because of depleted staff and limitations of space and equipment.

Once again, Baltimore schools were in the headlines as the heat index forced the district to close schools that lack air conditioning systems. Citing mismanagement, Gov. Larry Hogan criticized Baltimore City Public Schools and said that it was “unbelievable” that two dozen schools lack air-conditioning. But Baltimore City school officials’ air conditioning plan, which the governor approved, is on schedule to be completed by next school year. Meanwhile, there are many more critical school facility deficiencies that Governor Hogan continues to ignore.

Last month, students returned to Howard County school buildings to greet friends and teachers for the first time in nearly 18 months. Throughout this past year, we’ve worked with our school system to prepare school buildings for the return of in-person learning, building infrastructure that would make all our students and educators safe. A $6 million contribution of CARES Act funding supported the installation of MERV13 HVAC air filters in every school building that didn’t have one previously.