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Equal opportunities for all will conserve
our human resources, since intelligence,
ability and talent are found in all economic
classes. Second, educational opportunities
will create further taxpayers instead of
future welfare clients.
Friends, in this 1967 Constitutional Con-
vention I would like you to remember what
we plan for is not for today, not for to-
morrow, but for the tomorrows beyond the
horizons. We should not think of this equal
education solely from the point of the an-
nual expense, nor solely from the problems
involved, but as a possible investment
which will resound to the benefit of the
people.
THE CHAIRMAN: Your time has ex-
pired.
DELEGATE BEACHLEY: Can you give
me one more second or so?
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: Mr. Chair-
man, I yield another two minutes to Dele-
gate Beachley.
DELEGATE BEACHLEY: I will not
need that much.
THE CHAIRMAN: For what purpose
does Delegate Mitchell rise?
DELEGATE MITCHELL: A point of per-
sonal privilege, or parliamentary inquiry,
or just a plain request for courtesy to an
outstanding educator in this State, Dele-
gate Beachley. I think we have been very
discourteous.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Beachley.
DELEGATE BEACHLEY: Thank you,
Delegate Mitchell. Thank you.
This Maryland Constitutional Convention
cannot avoid the obligation of carrying the
landscape which it is now costing. I urge
that you support the majority on its prop-
osition for equal educational opportunities
and vote against the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lord.
DELEGATE LORD: Mr. Chairman, I
will yield three minutes to Delegate Borom.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Borom.
DELEGATE BOROM: Mr. Chairman, fel-
low delegates, the only thing I could think
of when I saw the Majority Report was
that this is a game that the Committee was
playing with us, and I hate to be discourte-
ous because I think really the Committee
was honorable in its intent; but I thing it
is misguided.
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It may seem a little bit unusual for me
to stand here and speak against reference
to equal education and opportunity. How-
ever, as I see it, the use of the phrase,
equal educational opportunity is a mis-
nomer, and it is misleading in its ultimate
impact.
Every individual, at least allegedly, is
born with an equal right to the opportunity
structure of our society. However, culture,
environment, life's circumstances with
which individuals are confronted because
imbalances or varying levels of readiness
to engage in a formal educational program
and created differences. Head-start pro-
grams funded by the federal government
emerge from the recognition of the above.
The many seasoned teachers we have here
are certainly aware of the intelligence tests,
et cetera, to determine the varying levels
of readiness and capabilities that you have
among your students. I would suggest that
we talk about equal educational opportunity.
I can only think of dollars and cents and
the amount that would be demanded that
every student within the State of Mary-
land have spent on him, and I almost cer-
tain that in dollars and cents the demand
when we talk about equal educational op-
portunity would be that no more dollars
be spent on one child than another. I think
the educational system ought to be free to
determine what each child needs in order
to achieve his maximum potential capacity,
and then spend the dollars in that way. It
means you may have to spend a thousand
dollars on one child, or a series of children
in certain economic or cultural levels, and
you may have to spend five hundred on
others, but I think this ought to be freedom
without reference to the misleading phrase
such as equal educational opportunity in
the constitution.
This past June I had the good fortune of
spending ten days, including working Sun-
days and evenings, in a workshop com-
prised of educators from all parts of the
country; and one of the things we dealt
with was the question of educational dis-
advantages. It became quite clear in that
workshop that one thing that the educa-
tional systems throughout the United States
failed to do was to take into account the
need to expend those funds as needed to
bring each child up to the maximum of
his potential.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Wheatley.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: Mr. Chair-
man, I yield one minute to Delegate Bam-
berger.
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