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live, each board member comes to look upon
his community as a part of a whole, rather
than a walled district whose social interests
must be defended.
Each portion of the State could be headed
to this end by the educational interests of
laymen and educators where they are part
of the concern of a state program of high
quality.
A State Board of Education has been a
part of the history of the State. In 1870 the
General Assembly established the State
Board of Education. We are now consti-
tutionalizing it.
I ask that we go one step farther in this
constitutionalization and implement this
board with the state superintendent. The
General Assembly has enacted what has
been considered a model state code, and
many of the provisions have remained un-
changed after approximately a half a
century.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-half
minute, Delegate Blair.
DELEGATE BLAIR: I read that the
educators also oppose appointment of super-
intendents by the governor. Abolition of
such method of selection for Maryland was
recommended in 1921, in a report to the
Federal Education Survey Commission by
Flexner and Backman, wherein it is stated
"that the superintendent who is the State's
educational executive should be chosen not
by the governor but by a board as far re-
moved from political influences as possible
for a term either indefinite or long enough
to remove danger of political complica-
tions."
This recommendation has been followed
to today. I ask that this be constitution-
alized.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lord.
DELEGATE LORD: Would the Chair
advise me how much controlled time
remains?
THE CHAIRMAN: About ten minutes.
DELEGATE LORD: I would like to
yield three minutes to Delegate Singer.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Singer.
DELEGATE SINGER: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Convention, the
choice between the Majority and Minority
Reports is in reality a choice between pre-
serving the educational status quo or pre-
serving freedom of choice and meeting the
future educational needs of this State. The
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creation in this constitution of a State
Board of Education or any other board by
whatever name you may wish to call it,
endowed with the broadest of powers, in-
cluding the appointment of the constitu-
tional office of state superintendent, is in
reality an attempt to elevate these func-
tions and solidify them.
I am yielding into the mold chosen for
the future solution of problems in this area
of vital concern. We have heard much so
far about the governing board for public
education.
The real point in the Majority Report, is
that the State Board of Education shall
formulate policy, and exercise control and
direction over the public school system.
This is the power and the authority
which we reject as being included in this
constitution.
We also do not wish to make the state
superintendent of schools a constitutional
office, as it is done in only very few states.
I believe eleven states only require that the
superintendent be appointed by the board
in their constitution, so that the institution
of constitutional mandate for the flexibility
of legislative enactment requires the State
Board of Education to be appointed from
various geographic areas. As the minority's
memorandum indicates, much of the lan-
guage recommended by the majortiy has
been taken from existing statutes, indicat-
ing that the General Assembly has recog-
nized its responsibility in the past and
discharged that responsibility.
No compelling reasons have been ad-
vanced to elevate these laws into constitu-
tional provisions. To the contrary, the nu-
merous and also conflicting theories of edu-
cation which have been and are presently
being advanced throughout the State and
the country dictate to us in this Convention
that the doors should be left open for new
thinking and fresh solutions to continuing
problems, and the problems of tomorrow
may well require governmental action un-
thought of today, action that may be fore-
closed by the establishment of the educa-
tional authority advocated by the majority.
I would point out to you that the model
state constitution, in just five lines, deals
with the subject of education which it rec-
ognizes as having preeminent importance.
The Constitutional Convention Commis-
sion's draft had two sections on education,
and contained none of the detailed ad-
ministrative structure we find in the ma-
jority's recommendation.
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