The Problems With A Mandated Maryland STATE Curriculum
- Fellow Editors
- 8 hours ago
- 9 min read
Maryland Once Again Tries to Best Other Blue States With Educational Tyranny
Recently, the Maryland Legislature passed HB 161. The bill, proposed by Democrat Vanessa Atterbeary, Howard County, originally started out as a way to coerce counties and parents so they would teach young children gender ideology in the Maryland State Health and Sex Education Framework. Counties who allowed parents to "opt out" of the unit would face financial consequences from the State Department of Education.
It didn't pass the first year it was proposed. This year, it passed the House of Delegates. When it crossed over to the Senate and appeared as though there might be problems with it, the Democrats did a bait and switch. They decided that they wouldn't just mandate that locals force gender ideology on kids but mandate that counties teach all content areas as the State demanded. The State Superintendent would be allowed to investigate ANY county where it was discovered they didn't follow the curriculum and then withhold state funding if she felt it was "necessary." Here's a link to the bill:
We have done several stories on Ms. Atterbeary, including one last month:
The other sponsor of the bill is Kris Fair Democrat from Frederick. Here's some info on him.
At the same time, a group of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian Parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, sued when their young children were forced to read LGBTQIA+ story books in grades K-3. The county denied these parents the opportunity to "opt out" of that instruction.
Parents argue that forcing these books on their young children violates their First Amendment rights. That lawsuit, after being shut down in the lower courts by judges who said the parents "showed no harm to their children," has now been argued in front of the Supreme Court.
The case will be decided later on this Summer.
These two events are concurrent and, although the one has more to do with parental rights than the State's curriculum mandate, the existence of both point out the problem with state-controlled education. A state mandated curriculum, unless it sticks to pure academics and not ideologies, will cross the line and step on parental rights.
The State controlled education establishment in Maryland fights to keep parents out of the decision-making process. In the Montgomery County case, the school system is claiming that parents don't have the right to control the education and upbringing of their children by influencing what they are taught in school. Of course, there are some subjects, reading, math, writing, science, history, geography, etc. that should be taught in public schools. But, educators must understand that they cannot assume the role of parents/families in a child's education.
Everywhere else, the State strives to neuter the local decision-making powers of duly elected school boards.
The bottom line is control.
While the Maryland Senate changed the bill to cover ALL curriculum and some say watered it down, don't be deceived. It's about control. It is about punishing counties like Carroll County who maintained local control in 2024 of their own curricula for Health and Sex Education. Delegate Atterbeary who hails from the progressive haven of Howard County, doesn't like when people don't do as she demands.
Some seem to think that the passing of this bill is much ado about nothing; that COMAR requires the opt out anyway.
Comprehensive health education is a required program of instruction. However, Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) 13A.04.18.01 allows parents/guardians to opt their student out of instruction related to family life and human sexuality (Standard 1C in the State Framework).
The policies, guidelines, and procedures for parents/guardians to opt their student(s) out of family life and human sexuality instruction vary from local education agency to local education agency. Please contact your student’s health education teacher for more information.
However, when you look at the bigger picture, the State took a problem for ONE framework and applied it to ALL of the content areas. They stripped local education agencies of the ability to develop and teach their own content.
From the State Legislature:
Requiring each county board of education to adopt curriculum guides and courses of study aligned with content standards established by the State Department of Education; establishing a process for correcting discrepancies identified by the State Superintendent of Schools in a county board's curriculum guides and courses of study, including the imposition of certain penalties; requiring the Department, in consultation with certain teachers, to develop content and curriculum standards and resources for each subject at each grade level; etc.
To be accurate, state frameworks have been present for decades. They were meant to be guidelines for LEA's to follow so they could have a way of organizing their content courses in each grade level. I have personally worked on some of these frameworks. They were heavily tied to state testing with broad content objectives which locals could adapt to their own needs. For example in Social Studies, counties often would teach about the local history of their area while fulfilling objectives in the framework.
They were never supposed to be tied to money and/or power. And they were never mandated by self-serving politicians trying to curry favor with special interest groups like the unions. They also were never dictated by unelected bureaucrats at the Maryland State Department of Education. Now they will be.
When I looked at who had worked on the current edition of the Health and Sex Education Framework for Maryland, there were FIFTY people on the list. Fifty people had their "hands" on what is taught in the Health and Sex Education Curriculum in Maryland. What's the statement about too many cooks spoil the broth? This is clearly an example. Every member of that group puts their fingerprints on this framework and make sure they serve the needs of the advocacy group they serve. Those advocacy groups don't include parents. Most are special interests or special populations.
We have some friends who claim that the State Superintendent has PROMISED to give parents a seat on the committees when curriculum decisions are made. It's a nice offer but having been on these committees I can say that the input from a few parents on a curriculum framework will have little or no real say on what they do. Like the Health and Sex Ed framework most of these committees are made up of at least 50 members who are education "professionals." Parental input will be dismissed as irrelevant. And, the groups at different content specialties and/or grade levels are often separated and have no knowledge of what other groups are doing.
When everyone is done with their work, MSDE brings all the work together and combines it in a way the education bureaucrats want.
Still, many claim that if the State is doing the testing then why not have them control what locals teach?
The key word is control. Control will now be in the hands of ONE person; the STATE SUPERINTENDENT. That control will be in the form of funding. And, while funding is given by the State and Federal governments, imagine if a State Superintendent decides she doesn't like a county, such as Carroll, because they aren't doing exactly what she wants. She will recommend to the state/feds that they cut the funding for that county.
In an even darker scenario what if the State Superintendent of Schools wants counties to use a certain curriculum vender to teach the content mandated? Doesn't this open the gate for mass corruption and kickbacks?
For example, the current State Superintendent, Carey Wright, believes in the SCIENCE OF READING method of teaching reading. She has already indicated that she wanted all counties to use SCIENCE OF READING.
You may not think that this is a problem because Wright allegedly brought her previous state, Mississippi, up substantially in the national reading rankings for 4th grade. Unfortunately, there appears to have been some smoke and mirrors with the so called "Mississippi Miracle." Wright made sure that students who couldn't read on grade level were not included in the 4th Grade testing cohort. From the LA Times:
What’s the real story? Drum and Somerby focused on the so-called “third-grade gate” implemented by the literacy program — the requirement that third-grade underachievers repeat third grade. In Mississippi, almost 10% of third-graders have been getting held back, a higher proportion than in any other state. (Some may have been held back more than once.)
The statistical result of this policy should be obvious. If you throw the lowest-ranking 10% out of a statistical pool, the remaining pool inevitably looks better. Drum went so far as to add those dropped pupils back into the calculation. He found that the gains from 2013 to 2022 completely disappeared. “In other words,” he remarked, “the 2013 reforms had all but no effect.”
She also was alleged to have had some backdoor financial relationships with vendors:
And here is a troubling resolution from the Maryland State Board of Education regarding THE SCIENCE OF READING. This was pushed by Wright:
Superintendent Wright is no stranger to State mandates or allegations of conflicts of interest.
You may say that if something like the SCIENCE OF READING will improve reading, who cares if it is mandated or the purchase of materials corrupt. About twenty years ago they were saying the same thing about whole language reading instruction. Now parents are suing the creator of this educational method for fraud:
Calkins made millions off the program.
Lucy Calkins, a literacy guru, was once paid a no-bid $5.4 million contract to revamp literacy instruction in 100 New York high schools over three years. She often charged $1,200 just to send one of her instructions into schools for a single day3. Her approach to reading instruction has been controversial, and she has been criticized for not acknowledging the importance of phonics5.
Imagine a Superintendent and State School Board being in complete control of curriculum taught statewide and the purchase of materials for each content area.
Here is the current data regarding states with "state" mandated curriculum:
18 States leave Curriculum to Local Districts (blue on map)
7 leave curriculum to "others" (gray on map)
24 states recommend curriculum to locals (gold on map)
1 has a state mandated curriculum (North Carolina) (dark gray)
Many tell me that this step by the legislature will NOT lead to a state mandated curriculum. But, as we have discovered with other legislative actions, they never implement tyrannical control all at once. They take baby steps at first. Citizens need to think ahead to the possible future consequences.
If the State is truly going to take over all the curriculum decisions for locals, then what is the point of having elected school boards? Why not save locals hundreds of thousands of dollars and disband these boards. No more long meetings, no more elections, nada. Just the State Superintendent and her minions can make decisions and then dictate them to local Superintendents.
Maybe Wright can go one step further and invite Vanessa Atterbeary to go around the state and create mandates with her. Vanessa would really love that.
Parents need to keep watchful eyes on this process. All state and county frameworks, courses of study, and resources need to be readily available to the public without having to conduct a public information act request. Just a simple email or phone call would suffice. And parents/taxpayers need to be brave enough to ask. After all, these are our school systems, our children, and our tax dollars.
If they aren't, we will have more incidents like this one in Montgomery County, Maryland:
The current Supreme Court Case may solve the problem for parents. Let's hope they help the Christian student in the above situation. If they rule that school systems MUST allow parents to opt their children out of certain topics, a state mandated curriculum will be slightly, if not completely, neutered.
Despite the mantras of left leaning authoritarians, the children do not "belong" to the state. They are the precious children of parents who have the right to guide and shape their beliefs.
Jan Greenhawk, Author
May 5, 2025
Jan Greenhawk is a former teacher and school administrator for over thirty years. She has two grown children and lives with her husband in Maryland. She also spent over twenty-five years coaching/judging gymnastics and coaching women’s softball.
This article was originally featured on the Easton Gazette.
Please consider joining the Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition and follow us on FaceBook to stay informed of what's really happening with education in our schools. Copyright DelmarvaPTC.org
Comments