Dem lawmakers in Howard want some Board of Education members appointed, not voted in
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Dem lawmakers in Howard want some Board of Education members appointed, not voted in
Local democracy is under threat
Lawmakers in Howard County plan to partially strip local citizens of their ability to select who represents them on the county’s Board of Education, according to a Monday report from the citizen journalism website Howard County Watchdogs.
Howard Senator Clarence Lam (D-12) and Delegate Courtney Watson (D-9B) have proposed local legislation that would grant the Howard County Executive, currently progressive Democrat Calvin Ball, the authority to directly appoint 2 of the 8 members to the county’s Board of Education every four years.
As it stands today, 7 of the 8 seats on the county’s Board are voted in by adult citizens of the county, the lone outlier being the student member of the Board who gets voted in by local public school students.
If this new local legislation goes through, the taxpayers of Howard would be reduced to selecting only 5 of the 8 members on their county’s Board of Education, a body that is responsible for the administration of an annual budget that exceeds a billion dollars.
A public hearing for the bill will take place on Wednesday, December 14, from 7:00pm to 9:30pm in the Banneker Room of the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.