Reason for Pessimism

Everything is not rosey on the School Board selection front. Despite the failure of HB625 during the just concluded legislative session, supporters of the bill are optimistic that the bill will be passed in 2006. From the Sun story:

Three of the county's five state senators initially had problems with the House bill. [Senator] Jimeno said some parts of the county weren't adequately represented on [Speaker] Busch's proposed nominating committee. Jimeno also complained that the bill failed to give the County Council a role in the selection or to offer public hearings on possible board members.

Busch's bill passed the House on March 28. The county's senators tinkered with the bill until Monday, adding amendments to include more representation for West and North counties, Severna Park and Annapolis. This shored up support from every Anne Arundel senator except Jimeno, but too late for a Senate committee vote.

Instead of addressing the notable problems with the bill, mainly that the legislation only creates a facade of active public participation in the process, the Senate decided to horse trade over which geographical areas and which interest groups were to be represented on the Commission.

A bullet was dodged this year by not passing the bill. Looks like we will need to work hard to make sure that this bill fails next year as well.