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amendment to perfect the amendment under
consideration could be considered. That
means, Delegate Robie, if your amendment
is ready, it could be submitted.
DELEGATE ROBIE: Mr. Chairman,
my amendment is ready, but I have had it
called to my attention, and I have not
really had a chance to look at it, that per-
haps my amendment would not do what I
proposed because it modifies back there
where they are talking about changing the
referendum vote, and I am afraid that I
would have to have a little more time to
look at this.
THE CHAIRMAN: Well, look at it now.
Delegate Willis. I will call for Delegate
Willis to give you time. Delegate Willis, do
you have an amendment printed?
DELEGATE WILLIS: Yes, sir, Amend-
ment B.
THE CHAIRMAN: Amendment B?
DELEGATE WILLIS: Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Willis, I
will recognize you to offer the amendment
as soon as the controlled time has expired.
You are speaking on controlled time.
DELEGATE WILLIS: I would like to
continue by making another point. There
has always been in Maryland a balance of
authority and control between state and
local boards. We now have put a state
board into our proposed constitution and
if we wish to continue that relationship
we should also have a local board in our
constitution.
I could say a great many things similar
to what Delegate Kathleen Robie has said.
We read in the papers where county com-
missioners are helping to get control of
boards of education through their appoint-
ment and Delegate Hanson made a point
for us when he spoke of the authority under
local government for boards of education
to have fiscal autonomy.
He also could have pointed out that it
might be possible through local instru-
ments of government under our section on
local government to get control of the ap-
pointment of boards of education. I think
this would be bad and I will save my
reasons for that until I present my amend-
ment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lord.
DELEGATE LORD: Mr. Chairman and
fellow delegates —
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THE CHAIRMAN: I am sorry, you
wanted to reserve your time.
DELEGATE LORD: I would prefer to
reserve it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Very well.
Delegate Wheatley.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: I believe I
have one minute left. I will take that at
the conclusion of Delegate Lord's remarks.
THE CHAIRMAN : You have more than
that. You say you want one minute?
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: I will take
the balance of my time at the conclusion
of Delegate Lord's remarks.
THE CHAIRMAN: Very well.
Delegate Lord.
DELEGATE LORD: Mr. Chairman and
fellow delegates, I cannot imagine three
more capable speakers than the three
speakers who spoke during the controlled
time advocating the abolition of this sec-
tion. We had the Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Local Government; we had a
member of the school board of Montgomery
County; and we had Royce Hanson who
has been an educator and has been in-
terested in education for quite a while.
Delegate Moser told you that this section
adds nothing to the protection of the county
in its best construction and in its worst
construction is incapable of being under-
stood.
It is clear that the General Assembly has
preempted by Article 77 of the Maryland
Annotated Code the entire field of educa-
tion and will continue to preempt the field
under the new constitution if it is adopted.
There is no reason to believe that these
veiled threats of changing the method in
which these boards are selected will take
place any more under the new document
than they would have under the old docu-
ment. The instruments of government will
be silent on this point. I am almost posi-
tive because all these powers will be with-
drawn from the counties. At the risk of
being redundant, these boards will be in
exactly the same position under the new
document as they are right now.
Now, there are other problems in section
5 besides this. First of all, as I indicated
in my presentation, the balance is upset
between the state board and the local
boards because no powers are left in local
boards. They are given constitutional rec-
ognition and no powers.
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