|
Delegate Wheatley.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: I just want to
conclude this. Without the complete pre-
sentation I do not think my answer would
be accurate. I think it is completely unique
in that we have established lay boards
rather than a single head who runs the
various departments quite differently from
school boards, and for this reason we do
say that education again is not a sacred
cow for special treatment. Nothing so far
in the constitution that I know of has given
education in this State anything it did not
have under the existing Constitution, so
that there is no special something being
built into it until we are now in considera-
tion of this article and we are debating the
merits of it.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Pullen.
DELEGATE PULLEN: Specifically, Mr.
Chairman, was not this provision written
to protect the Baltimore City Board of
Education; secondly, was it not specifically
rewritten to say that no county may make
any change whatsoever in its system if it
does not desire it?
Specifically, Mr. Chairman, does not the
pension system that Senator James refers
to, have anything whatsoever to do with
this? In my professional opinion no.
(Laughter.)
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Does Delegate Robey still desire the floor?
DELEGATE ROBEY: Not now.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Wheatley.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: In answer to
Dr. Pullen's question I would summarize by
saying no imptance, and yes importance.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: I was willing to
accept your language or the committee's
language in section 2 as largely oratory lan-
guage. But in your answer to Delegate
Schloeder you indicated you meant some-
thing quite specific by it when you said it
would be measured in the result and not in
the input. I find this a little inconsistent
with your committee recommendation sec-
tion 2 and I am wondering if you could ex-
pand exactly what you meant in answer to
Delegate Schloeder's question and whether
or not that is in conflict with the Com-
mittee Recommendation section 2.
|
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Wheatley, the time is up but we
will allow you to answer this question.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: I would say
your earlier assumption is correct, that the
results must be measured in a somewhat
nondefinable term and you cannot do it in
dollars and cents. It is basically something
that must be left to legislative determina-
tion as to how much is enough. I think the
committee recommendation is again in that
nature and my answer would certainly be
the same. We are talking about intangibles
that are difficult to measure, but yet have
evidence that they are based on various
occurrences in society, and yet it is not
something you can put on the scale and go
one, two, three. And I would certainly not
want that type of thing put in.
DELEGATE J. JAMES (presiding):
The Chair recognizes Delegate Lord.
DELEGATE LORD: Mr. Chairman, la-
dies and gentlemen of the Convention, I
have the honor of presenting the minority
report on the subject of education.
As Vice-Chairman Wheatley has already
suggested, we were badly split in our Com-
mittee, and the vote was eight to seven to
report this recommendation to the floor.
The vote is now basically unchanged, al-
though as I understand it, it is 7-7 and 1 ;
so this is about as even a split as you
can get.
I have been greatly encouraged by the
presentation of Delegate Wheatley, because
before the minority has even come forth to
speak, he has capitulated to a great extent
in the great tradition of R&P-2. We are
now striking the entire section 3. I lost
count of the number of amendments that
were consented to, but it seems to me they
were in the neighborhood of seven. I hope
this momentum continues and that you con-
tinue to follow the lead of the minority
and strike considerably more from this
proposed recommendation.
We are dealing first of all with existing
language. The existing Constitution con-
tains 139 words that can be directly at-
tributed to the subject of education. The
majority has indicated that they have been
impressed and pleased by the progress of
education and want this progress to con-
tinue in the future, and yet this radical de-
parture from the existing constitutional
framework has not been explained at all.
Indeed, section 5, which the questions from
the floor have indicated is rather inscru-
table, is almost as long as the entire lan-
|
