SEIU Local 500 and progressive coalition partners have laid out what everyone agrees is needed to fund the schools -- and the Maryland -- that we all want. That's a genuinely fair tax regime that requires corporate Maryland to stop looting the state for private gain and CEO megasalaries. Unspoken here is the barrier of corporate toady Gov. Larry Hogan's ruling-class grip on the state budget process -- the new leadership of the General Assembly will have to take bold new steps to wrench it loose.

Links to our latest blog posts, plus the Progressive Maryland statewide meeting Dec. 14, school improvement and Medicare for all -- plus progressive events across the state

This week: links to our recent blogs on SCOTUS DACA hearings, Kirwan and the Assembly and vigilance against the chipping away of working families’ gains. Plus statewide training opportunities, battles on school improvement and Medicare for All, news and events from PM’s chapters, and events from our progressive allies.

Marylanders – and friends outside the state – should realize that a genuine crossroads for our nation’s values and health is before us this week as the US Supreme Court considers the legal logjam on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. There is much to do.

Earlier this week Democratic leadership in the Assembly came down firmly on both sides of the school improvement project agenda -- adopting and funding the Kirwan commission proposals and putting their weight behind school construction at an advanced pace, as well.

Given that Gov. Hogan has served notice he will use tax-hike trash talk to raise money to oppose the funding with the GOP's sleazy low-tax mantra, that's reassuring to activists around the state who know better schools are the motor of a better life for Maryland's working families.

Legislators who are cowering on the sidelines in this fight will find they need to step up or face opposition. So say we all.

As the 2020 session approaches, many experienced voices are reminding us that the legislative process, often masked in committee deliberations, steadily excludes different people from bills meant to be broad-ranging -- doing the bidding of business and corporations. It happened in the New Deal, and it happened (and is still happening) in the Maryland General Assembly. The lesson? We have to build power and organize now to fight the lobbyists and business interests that never stop chipping away at laws like paid sick leave and the $15 minimum wage.

The Weekly Memo -- GOTV time with local elections TOMORROW (Tuesday, Nov. 5) around the state. We have endorsed candidates to support! Plus education reform, Medicare for All, calendar events including our Dec. 14 Statewide Meeting in Baltimore, and much more. Read on below.

When six out of ten adults arrested in MoCo are under 35, they need to have a voice on how the MCPD conducts itself. 
“Young people — especially young black and brown people — are the most likely to have interactions with the police in Montgomery County. Therefore, they need to be at the table for any discussion of how to improve policing policy,” these community activists argue in a Maryland Matters opinion column.

Submitted for your attention this Monday – local elections Nov. 5; our blogs; statewide meeting Dec. 14; transportation in Prince George’s; school improvement in MoCo – and lots more. It's the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo, your clearinghouse for progressive thought and activism, power building and co-governance pathways. Read on.

Think the 2020 election is getting close? Well, this Tuesday, November 5 there are local elections all around Maryland, and the people who get elected to make change in your local community are also very important to our lives. Don’t let these opportunities to build power and make change where you and your neighbors live slip by! Read about Progressive Maryland's endorsements here for Bowie, College Park, Greenbelt, Pittsville, Salisbury -- and Rockville, where voting is all by mail this time.