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DELEGATE LORD: The language is not
exactly what you have stated. The first
amendment offered by the Minority, will be
an amendment to substitute our section
8.03 for sections 1 and 4 of the majority
report. The language of the amendment will
only differ in one respect from that of the
report which you have in front of you, and
that is in line Sof the Minority Report,
following the word "school", there will be
the phrase, "headed by a board appointed
by the governor." Then, the new sentence
will begin, which will say, "the State shall
also provide."
It is an addition of, I think ten words,
and certainly, if I did not mention it in my
presentation, I certainly intended to.
The reason basically for this is when
the Minority Report was written, the exe-
cutive article had not been fully debated
and completed on the floor. You will recall
that there were floor amendments on this
very point, and the subject was more or
less deferred until we reached GP-6. Be-
cause of the open nature of the executive
article, this language was added to make it
clear that the head of the principal depart-
ment, the executive branch in education
will be a board appointed by the governor.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: Delegate Lord,
did your minority consider the fact that in
many areas of the State essential educa-
tional services such as vocational training,
training for physically and mentally handi-
capped children, health services for the
pupils and library facilities are absent?
DELEGATE LORD: Delegate Mitchell,
the majority and the minority considered
this in that two witnesses from a group,
I believe it was in Prince George's County,
that worked with handicapped children did
appear. They did not bring any specific
recommendations to the Committee, and I
believe that they were the only witnesses
of the eighty-three witnesses that did make
any mention of this subject.
We of the minority are certainly aware
of this problem and are deeply concerned
about the problem. We do not feel, however,
that we possess the omniscience and the
expertise to solve these problems by con-
stitution.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: Well, Delegate
Lord, in your decision to drop the concept
of equal educational opportunity, did you
consider that the equal opportunity of the
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children of the State to get these services
is very important?
DELEGATE LORD: Mrs. Mitchell, first
let me clarify the minority's position: we do
not oppose the concept of equal educational
opportunities. There are two things that
should be mentioned on this point: First of
all, we oppose the language as presently
drawn, simply because it is a requirement,
a mandate upon the General Assembly to
cure all situations where unequal opportu-
nities exist.
I suggest that this area that you men-
tioned is probably one of them, but it is
certainly not the only one. I do not think
anyone knows, and for the lack of testi-
mony before the Committee we did not feel
we were in position to get ourselves into
this kind of language at this point.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Winslow.
DELEGATE WINSLOW: Mr. Chairman,
Delegate Lord, may ask first, what would
be the structure and organization of the
school system of the State of Maryland now
if in 1867, the writers of that Constitution
had frozen into the Constitution the educa-
tional system and organization of that date ?
DELEGATE LORD: Dr. Pullen's capsule
history of that period, would suggest it
would have been radically different from
the existing structure that is lauded by the
majority.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Winslow.
DELEGATE WINSLOW: Another ques-
tion: in the areas of sections 6 and 7, I find
reference to the powers of the boards over
the financial matters of the institution. Do I
correctly interpret this language as holding
that it would be possible for the board of
such an institution, as a community college
to take the money appropriated by the
General Assembly for faculty salaries and
use it for landscaping the stadium ?
DELEGATE LORD: I think that the
principle that you have stated is certainly
true, and the answer would have to be yes.
I have some reservation about landscaping
a stadium to the extent that it may be a
capital improvement, and it is my under-
standing that the capital improvement budg-
et may not be tampered with by these in-
stitutions; but certainly they could reduce
and slash faculty salaries, use the money
to create entirely new programs that were
not in the budget as submitted and approved
by the General Assembly, yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Kathleen
Robie.
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