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Education Temper Tantrum in Maryland…

Fellow Editors
Mar 7, 20235 min read


Spoiled State Superintendent Pouts Like a Two-Year-Old So the Maryland House of Delegates Throws Him a Pacifier


It’s a scene you can find in ANY supermarket, a mom pushes a grocery cart around the store with a toddler seated in the front. As they pass the candy aisle, the toddler starts pointing at candy, screeching, and flailing his legs and arms. “I want, I want!”


The mom tries to ignore the screaming child, but everyone is watching them and it’s clear that they are irritated that the parent will not shut the child up. The mom eventually gives in and hands the toddler all the candy he wants. The child quiets down and all is well.


It’s a common scene in a supermarket, but not usually in a State House of Delegates or Department of Education.


Unless you live in Maryland.


In a previous post I wrote about how the Maryland Superintendent of Schools, Mohammed Choudhury, angry that this Health and Sex Education Framework was stalling in committee, demanded that all counties in Maryland adopt this curriculum or else. Here’s the link. You can read about how this all played out, complete with video evidence:



At the time of that post, we did not know the extent of the “amendments” to this bill. Here they are:




I’m not sure “amended” adequately describes what they did to this bill. This was a mutilation. There are more strikethroughs than there are sentences. Delegate Atterbeary even giggles about it.


Let’s look at the “pieces” that are left.


On the first page we find out that the Superintendent of Schools would have complete control over what counties teach in ANY CURRICULUM. Even the title of the bill has been changed to read, “County Boards of Education: Curriculum Guides and Courses of Study-Requirements.” If local districts don’t do as Choudhury demands in any subject, they can lose 10% of their budgets for each 30 days they ignore his edicts which could be up to 20%. Here’s the paragraph:



They even made the “opt out ” choice for parents subject to the control of the State Superintendent. If counties don’t implement the opt out as he deems, they get fined for that.

To top off this tyranny, the State Superintendent will demand local Superintendents provide HIM with all curricular and instructional materials used in their schools. So, while parents will fight to see what is being taught to their children, the State Superintendent will have these materials at his fingertips.


Impressive, huh? All this power in the hands of ONE MAN in the state. Why, heck, why did we even bother to elect school boards when Emperor Mohammed Choudhury will make all the decisions from his throne at the Maryland State Department of Education? Seems kind of silly.

My mother-in-law once described for me how she stopped her children from having temper tantrums. She certainly didn’t give into them. No. She would take a big bucket of cold water and dump it over their heads. She said it always worked.


It’s time for someone to throw some cold water on Mohammad Choudhury’s head. It’s time for him to learn that in a Representative Constitutional Republic, the PEOPLE get to choose leaders, give input to those leaders, and then hold those leaders accountable for their decisions. We don’t have kings, sultans, emperors, or supreme rulers.



Choudhury Mid-Pout at a State Board Meeting


If he can’t handle that, maybe he needs to find another job. I’m sure there is an empty throne room somewhere. Just not here.


Want to throw a figurative bucket of water on Choudhury’s head? Write to the delegates on the Ways and Means Committee, any other of our officials and your local Delegates and Senators. A sample letter is included at the end.


Address: Room 131, House Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Phone: 410-841-3469, 301-858-3469

Toll-free in MD: 1-800-492-7122 ext. 3469

Contact: Email – AA_WAM@mlis.state.md.us


Committee Member Email Addresses (copy & paste)

Address: Room 231, House Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Phone: 410-841-3519, 301-858-3519

Toll-free in MD: 1-800-492-7122 ext. 3519


Committee Member Email Addresses (copy & paste)


Address: 2 West, Miller Senate Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Phone: 410-841-3661

Toll-free in MD: 1-800-492-7122 ext. 3661


Committee Member Email Addresses (copy & paste)


Address: Room 101, House Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Phone: 410-841-3488, 301-858-3488

Toll-free in MD: 1-800-492-7122 ext. 3488

Contact: Email


Committee Member Email Addresses (copy & paste)


Address: 3 East, Miller Senate Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Phone: 410-841-3677, 301-858-3677

Toll-free in MD: 1-800-492-7122 ext. 3677


Committee Member Email Addresses (copy & paste)


Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Phone: 410-946-5350, 301-970-5350

Toll-free in MD: 1-800-492-7122 ext. 5350


Committee Member Email Addresses (copy and paste)


Address: Room 241, House Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Phone: 410-841-3770, 301-858-3770, Toll-free in MD: 1-800-492-7122 ext. 3770


Committee Member Email Addresses (copy and paste)


 

Here’s a sample letter you can edit, copy and send:


To Whom it May Concern,


We are writing to protest the callous, illegal extortion and coercion that the State Superintendent of Schools, Mohammad Choudhury and Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary are conspiring to commit against the 24 local school boards and school systems of Maryland.


To provide context, our groups are vehemently opposed to HB 119/SB 199, implementation of the Comprehensive Health Education Framework. This letter is not directly about that, but about the conspiratorial actions of the State Superintendent and Delegate Atterbeary.


The Superintendent and Delegate Atterbeary have now edited the bill to grant sole authority to the Superintendent of Schools and the unelected State Board of Education to determine which curriculum and courses of study taught in ANY content in every district in Maryland. If districts don’t comply, the State Superintendent can punish them by taking away up to 20% of their local funding.


This is a tyrannical overreach by the State. Never in our history has the legislature or the State Superintendent DEMANDED that our local elected Boards teach exactly what the State mandates.


The bill also requires that any “opt out” measures that local boards initiate must meet the requirements of the State. This basically removes that option from local, elected officials.


This is a nullification of the votes of citizens in districts where Board of Education members are elected. It also removes the rights for locals to determine the curricula and courses of study best suited for the needs of their student population and communities.


We ask that you vigorously oppose this bill.



 

Jan Greenhawk, Editor/writer Radio Free Oxford

March 7, 2023


Jan is a retired teacher and a current Chapter Chair for Moms for Liberty, Talbot


© Janet L. Greenhawk and Radio Free Oxford, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janet L. Greenhawk and Radio Free Oxford with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Jan can be reached at jan417@radiofreeoxford.com

 
 
 

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