The Baltimore Banner - District 91��Ƭistration

It just got tougher to ban books in Maryland school libraries

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 14:19:07 +0000

Maryland’s school board approved changes in state regulations to align with a law that prevents removing books from school libraries without due process.

The move adds another layer of protection for school library books in Maryland amid attempts by conservative activists to pull books they view as inappropriate. The change will go into effect after a regulatory review process.

Last year, state lawmakers passed the Freedom to Read Act. It prevents school and public library books from being removed because of an author’s background as well as partisan, ideological or religious disapproval.

Maryland education reform kicks into high gear this school year. It’s getting sticky.

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 12:56:40 +0000

Parents may barely have heard of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, but the expansive changes to public education are already shaping their children’s lives in school.

Parents are seeing more spots available in public prekindergarten, putting thousands of dollars back in their pockets. Their children’s teachers are better paid. They soon may see class sizes rise or fall dramatically, depending on where their kids go to school. And their high schoolers are being held to a higher standard, but have more opportunities to take college-level classes and pursue careers.

Two years into the popular $4.4 billion-a-year plan, educators in every school district are finding their priorities reordered, sometimes in ways they hadn’t expected. The new money — a $3.7 billion increase in state funding and the remainder in local increases — is funding a local wish list of improvements, but it is also forcing them to cut things parents often like.

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An African American studies class is too ‘divisive’ for one Maryland school district

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 12:39:11 +0000

The nearly 100 Harford County Public School students who signed up to take the Advanced Placement African American Studies next school year will have to find a new class.

The latest version of the college prep course piloted at three Harford high schools was rejected by the school board last week in 5-4 vote, with some members calling it divisive, with a progressive agenda and too much focus on racism. The curriculum, designed by a national nonprofit called the College Board, will be widely available for the first time this fall, but not in Harford County.

“The topics are heavily politically oriented and perpetuate the message of oppressed versus oppressor,” Terri Kocher, a board member who voted against the class, said at the meeting. “I think we’re missing an opportunity to present positive messages of unity and great American contributions.”

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Maryland schools have a new superintendent. She’s a familiar face

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:46:32 +0000

Carey Wright, Maryland’s interim state superintendent of schools, will be on the job another four years.

In a unanimous vote Wednesday evening, the Maryland State Board of Education selected Wright to run the state’s public schools on a more permanent basis — a job she’s said she wanted from the beginning.

Wright, a native Marylander, spent decades in Maryland as an educator, but she’s most known for her nine years as state superintendent in Mississippi, where students transformed their academic performances in both math and reading before she left in June 2022. The state that was often at the bottom of academic achievement list and is now above the national average.

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Why Maryland school budgets are in turmoil — and what that means in classrooms

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 17:14:41 +0000

For the past several years, Maryland schools have been anticipating a tsunami of new state and local money to wash over them, allowing them to add prekindergarten, raise teacher salaries and create support for high-poverty schools.

The reality is now here, and instead of euphoria, there’s shock, even from some educators who are deep in the weeds of the landmark education reform legislation.

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Affordable housing faces hurdles. Does ‘teacher housing’ have an easier path?

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 16:22:02 +0000

The three-story homes on Biddle Street, boarded up, blistered and blighted, may not look very different from their neighbors up and down the street. But pretty soon, they’ll take on a new purpose in the neighborhood.

Throughout Johnston Square, homes are being brought back to life as part of an $80 million overhaul in East Baltimore. ReBUILD Metro, a nonprofit, Baltimore-based developer, is reviving the neighborhood whole blocks at a time, infusing the community with new housing, street improvements and public amenities.

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Many Baltimore schools don’t have a nurse. Local colleges are stepping in to find them.

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 13:56:54 +0000

About an hour after the morning bell at Northwood Elementary School in North Baltimore, a boy came to the health suite looking for a mask. A few more kids streamed in with minor needs, like bandages. A second grader with butterflies pinned in her hair wanted someone to yank a wiggly baby tooth.

“I gave her some ice and wrote a note home to mom,” said Brianna Gibson, a registered nurse who says she sees about eight kids a day.

Dozens of Baltimore public schools lack a permanent registered on-site nurse daily, despite a 2021 state mandate for all 149 city school health suites. Some have aides with less education, overseen by a registered nurse somewhere else.

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