CUMBERLAND — The Allegany County Board of Education is asking county commissioners to join it in opposing state legislation that would erode local control over where children go to school.
But commissioners, who disagreed with the BOE last year on the school choice issue at the heart of the matter, haven’t taken a public stand.
“This issue is not about money, primarily. This issue is about jurisdiction,” BOE member Ed Root said Tuesday night, just before the board voted unanimously to pass a strongly worded resolution opposing House Bill 335.
Proposed by Delegate LeRoy Myers, a member of the Western Maryland Delegation, the bill would essentially reverse the local BOE’s decision last year to end its decade-old Washington County School Choice program because of budget cuts.
Through that program, around 40 children who live in Little Orleans in the easternmost part of Allegany County were allowed to attend Hancock school because it was closer than the closest in-county school.
In its current draft form, Myers’ bill would allow children in Maryland to attend public school in an adjoining county if they live more than 30 miles away from the closest school in their home county. The home county would pay costs.
“We were elected — the five of us — to administer the school system of Allegany County,” Root said. “If we do not control our budget, if we do not control our attendance areas, we do not control our school system.”
In a public display of solidarity Tuesday night, BOE members stood one by one and signed the resolution opposing the bill. The BOE also sent a letter to commissioners last week seeking support.
But the BOE and commissioners have had control issues of their own over the past year, engaging in a prolonged and public battle over whether Little Orleans children should be allowed to continue attending Washington County schools.
After the BOE voted to phase out the program in June, commissioners tried to intervene by offering to pay the children’s tuition until Myers could craft what President Michael McKay called a “legislative solution.” But rules say that boards of education in both counties have to agree before students can cross borders.
Parents of Little Orleans children filed a lawsuit in circuit court, but lost. An appeal before the Maryland State Board of Education was also denied.
On Tuesday, BOE member Mike Llewellyn implored county commissioners to oppose the bill for some of the same reasons that commissioners have publicly opposed PlanMaryland, an economic development plan being touted by the governor. Commissioners have joined with other rural counties to hire a lobbyist to fight PlanMaryland.
“The county doesn’t want someone from Baltimore or Montgomery County or the Eastern Shore or any other part of Maryland telling us how we can use our land in Allegany County,” said Llewellyn, who invited commissioners to travel with school officials to Annapolis on Thursday to testify against the House Bill 335.
Commissioners don’t plan to take a public stand on the bill until it is in final draft form, McKay said Tuesday night.
“It’s a statewide bill — there are lots of amendments that are very fluid,” McKay said. “Until we actually see what the bill contains we just don’t think it’s prudent to make a comment or take a position on the bill at this time.”
Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kbarkley@times-news.com.
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