Three Bills, No Hope

The Capital came out and said today exactly what I had been suspecting would happen in the first place; there is no hope for School Board selection reform in 2006.

There are now three bills that deal with the School Board selection process; the previously mentioned HB 24 and HB1373/SB915, and now also a bill by Delegate Cadden that would create a straw poll during this year's General Election to determine what the voters want to do. Truly complicating matters is the fact that three of the five Senators who represent this county are opposed to all of the options at this time.

It seems like that even the House Delegation cannot decide on which bill it supports. Some delegates support HB24, some delegates support HB1375. The situation is so completely out of hand that Delegate Dwyer is, according to the Capital, in the absurd position of opposing a bill that he is sponsoring.

Is there any good news out of this? Only that even if HB24, the bill that would elect school board members in name only, is dead on arrival in the Senate. What is bothersome, however, is the fact that the Senate delegation seems entrenched in the belief that no change is required.

I am of the belief that if given the choice, the best option is to allow the Board to be elected. An elected Board is an improvement over the current system insofar as everybody will be given the opportunity to participate in the process. No conventions. No nominating processes. No intrigue coming from the Governor as to whom the selection is really going to be. And if we can't get there this year, if we cannot get to the point where we have one appointed student member and seven elected Board members, then we should not act. No change is better than bad change, something I said upon the introduction of HB24 back in January.

The best way to ensure that we get that change in the future, however, is in your hands, the hands of the voter. At the ballot box in the September primary and in November's General Election, vote for candidates who support an elected school board. This is even more important in the Senate than it is in the House, because without a strong leader from Anne Arundel County on the floor of the Senate supporting an elected school board, we will not see reform at all.

If you want hope of change, make that change. At the moment, all we have are those three bills.