Kirwan Commission, school reform and the funds we need NOW

The Kirwan Commission (education reform) is still working out the funding formula for sharing new costs for reforms that member Sen. Paul Pinsky says "will be the envy of all 50 states" ... but the delay allows Gov. Hogan and his legislative henchmen to put off slate_for_school.jpgquestions of money for this 2019 Assembly session -- they think.

However, "the commission is pressing forward with a proposal that puts the new blueprint in place this year, spends at least $200 million and, hopefully, $325 million this coming year, as a down-payment, and sets a requirement that $1.5 billion, the amount originally proposed to be spent this year, is guaranteed in next year’s state budget," Pinsky declares in this post, which originally appeared Dec. 28 in Maryland Matters.



 

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Racial discrimination in the Prince George's Police Department

police_violence.pngRacial discrimination in the Prince George's Police Department is discouraging the reporting of abuse committed by PGPD officers because Latinx and Black officers in the department experience retaliation for speaking out about it, spurring a lawsuit. New leadership in the county must take firm steps to enable full compliance and accountability in the department in order to end abuse of citizens by police.



 

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Progressive Maryland -- First Weekly Memo of 2019

Progressive Maryland’s Dec. 29 Statewide Meeting in Annapolis hosted nearly 200 progressive activists. We connected and PM_Logo.pngre-energized after a draining midterm campaign; we met in breakout groups by local chapters; and we also broke out and strategized around issue campaigns. Read more in the first Memo of 2019.



 

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Five reasons not to get sucked into the 2020 election now

booker_and_warren.jpgDemocratic candidates are beginning to cascade into the 2020 presidential race at an accelerating pace. On New Year's Eve Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the latest to form an "exploratory committee" and others will doubtless do so soon, for visibility and fund-raising reasons. Lower Shore Progressive Caucus chair Jared Schablein ticks off the reasons that getting caught up in the madness too soon means we will be taking our eyes off the prize locally, where important work needs to be done and where local politicians are hoping you will not watch them too closely. He speaks for the Lower Shore but every jurisdiction in Maryland should take heed.

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Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Wednesday, December 26, 2016

PM_Logo.pngWelcome to the last Weekly Memo of 2018. Our Statewide Meeting in Annapolis this Saturday, Dec. 29 will kick off 2019 on the good foot – prepping for a highly interesting General Assembly session beginning January 9 and rolling on from there to mobilize working families and activists across the state. Be there; RSVP here.



 

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State leaders bail on critical education needs

 

slate_for_school.jpgAs the Kirwan Commission (“Innovation and Excellence in Education”) soldiered its way to completion of both policy and funding goals in nearly two years of hard work, the state’s leadership totally failed to do its part – both the Democratic-dominated Assembly and Larry Hogan’s executive branch blanched at the cost of doing the right thing by the state’s students and told the commissioners to, um, continue their work.

Few reporters in the state have devoted more effort to following the commission’s work than Len Lazarick, editor of the online Maryland Reporter. Here he outlines in an account headlined “Legislative leaders shelve new funding another year” the sorry performance of state leaders.



 

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A "Green New Deal" must be 100 percent just, as well

What others are calling a "just transition" to a new and planet-saving energy regime MUST include everyone involved, including impacted workers and frontline populations in so-called "sacrifice zones." And, as People's Action writer-activist Ben Ishibashi here implies but doesn't explore, any corporate engagement in the green economy has to be public-managed so resources and advantages do not bleed off to Wall Street's casino, big banks and the stock buyback frenzy.



 

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Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, Dec. 17, 2018

 MISTLETOE MEMO EDITION – be sure to give a nod to the Solstice on Dec. 21 as the Shortest Day goes by. Our next Memo will be the eve of the traditional holiday, Monday, Dec. 24 – but don’t forget to get yourself ready for the Statewide Progressive Maryland meeting, coming up…. More in this week's Memo, below...



 

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Raising progressive hell in Annapolis will be harder this year

protest_areas_in_Annapolis.jpgThe rehabbing of the cozy confines of Lawyer’s Mall, the traditional Annapolis location for demonstrations in front of the State House – where legislators need to pass by and view the festivities on their way to chambers and session – means protestors will have to locate elsewhere during at least the 2019 General Assembly session. Poland, hosting the latest climate summit, passed laws restricting protests and keeping them distant from the summit’s meetings; guess somebody was paying attention in the Hogan administration. Maryland Matters' Danielle Gaines has the details here.



 

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US Voters Want Health Care, Not Walls

ACA_saved_my_life_crop.jpgPeople’s Action director George Goehl shows how deep the electorate’s concern for health care provision is across the country – and how many GOP incumbents paid the price in the midterms for dissing the Affordable Care Act. The traction for “Medicare for All” in Maryland didn’t translate into a win at the top, we know—but that may be because the number of Marylanders without health coverage is at an historic low, with around 94 percent having some kind of coverage. But we still have to make it good coverage and keep for-profit providers focused on care, not stock prices.



 

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