Yesterday the Maryland General Assembly voted to override Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of a bill meant to protect public schools against the privatization agenda of Betsy DeVos.
Maryland has a rightwing Republican Governor, Larry Hogan, who has appointed a pro-privatization state board of education.
But Maryland also has a legislature controlled by Democrats. They hold a veto-proof majority.
The legislature passed an anti-privatization bill called the “Protect Our Schools Act,” intended to block state takeovers and the Trump/DeVos agenda.
Governor Hogan vetoed the bill on Wednesday, saying it would prevent the state from identifying low-performing schools and taking them over (and privatizing them). His appointed state board agreed with him.
Yesterday, the Democratic-controlled legislature overrode Hogan’s veto.
The governor is angry:
The bill [that he vetoed] would set standards for how the state would identify low-performing schools that Hogan says rely too little on standardized tests. And it would prevent the state from taking several actions to improve those schools, including converting them to charter schools, bringing in private management, giving the students vouchers to attend private schools or putting the schools into a special statewide “recovery” school district.
Hogan and members of the state school board argue that the bill would tie their hands as they try to rescue low-performing schools.
Let it be stipulated that neither the governor nor any member of the state school board has EVER rescued a low-performing school.
Congratulations to the educators and parents and students of Maryland for defeating Governor Hogan’s effort to impose the DeVos agenda on the state’s public schools.
