Safe Again

The Capital reported today that HB24, the School Board bill, was killed by the Senate Delegation yesterday. And good riddance to the bad bill.

Mark Fontaine, Chairman of the School Board Nominating Convention (and Mark is a good guy with one tough job on his hands every year), said a lot of what I have been saying all along:

Mark Fontaine, the nominating convention's chairman, opposed the bill. At yesterday's Senate delegation meeting in Annapolis, he said the new system would have "disenfranchised" taxpayers and parents who have a strong voice with the current system.

"The bill limits people, and I think that's bad," he said.

It is still appalling that the supporters of this bill wanted to refer to this as an elected school board, especially considering that the bill sponsors could not explain the bill to the public.

We are safe for this year, however this kind of nonsense will rear its ugly head once more. The only saving grace for county residents is that Delegate John Leopold is running for County Executive. Due to his run for County Executive, the kind of nonsense that was in HB24 will lose its biggest cheerleader (assuming that Delegate Leopold does not drop out of the race for County Executive...again).

Only by electing Delegates and Senators who support real reform through an elected school board will we be able to fix this mess and enact real reform in the way parents and taxpayers choose board members.