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I feel that this is a very desirable state
of affairs and that we should support this
amendment.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Maurer.
DELEGATE MAURER: I rise to op-
pose the amendment. When I spoke against
having "local board" in the constitution, it
was with the knowledge and understanding
that the General Assembly could pass laws
which varied from county to county, not-
withstanding what Delegate Freedlander
has said. I believe the issue before us is
whether the General Assembly retains en-
tirely within its purview, varying the laws
if necessary to meet diverse conditions in
the State, or whether to meet these diverse
conditions the General Assembly adheres
to the principle of uniform laws and frag-
ments education. But this is the point.
When you give it out to local government,
you give it to local commissioners, local
charters or local councils, not necessarily
to local boards.
The governance of education is different
than any other function of government in
this State. You operate, except in Balti-
more City, through local school boards, a
state school board, and both of these
powers stemming from the General As-
sembly.
Baltimore City is different. It goes way
back at least to 1872. The powers of the
State with respect to education have been
given to the mayor and council in Balti-
more. Under the constitution which we are
considering, Baltimore will be enabled to
continue to have its longstanding practice,
and there is a real question whether we
have had a statewide school system in the
past. We have had a system of schools in
the counties and another system in Balti-
more City. Baltimore City will be able to
continue its practice. It is in the counties
where you will have this change, where
you will have either uniform laws or new
powers given out to local governments, not
necessarily to local school boards.
I believe that this is the wrong time to
begin to take away from the General As-
sembly to a greater degree than has existed
before its overview of education. Condi-
tions in this nation and education are
changing very rapidly. You have the inter-
vention of the federal government. We are
trying to build a nationwide policy but not
a federal policy, and I think it is im-
portant that we have in this State House
and in other states houses across the na-
tion a good overview of education so that
we have fifty strong states dealing with the
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federal government and not just 20,000
school districts dealing with the federal
government.
I urge you to oppose the amendment
which is before you.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Borom.
DELEGATE BOROM: Mr. President
and fellow delegates, the Local Govern-
ment Committee commentary, if you would
take the time to read it, indicates that the
Committee very carefully for clays and
weeks studied this particular issue. We
looked at all the different angles and, not-
withstanding any statements our Chairman
will make, keep in mind we are a commit-
tee of nineteen and we made certain de-
cisions. We already brought to your at-
tention that on the first reading in this
particular section we made no reference to
education as a local legislation matter.
Delegate Maurer has referred to the fact
in Article 77 of the Code that the General
Assembly may permit counties to vary
terms of office. We have discussed and
strongly suggested that no county in this
State may lose what it presently has unless
it is for the benefit of the state educa-
tional system in general.
As we talked about education coming
under the rubric of public general law that
the State could pass a public general law
and to permit variances by county but not
spelling it out, that each county would
have the option of selecting or electing its
school board as it sees fit.
I would agree with Delegate Maurer
that the General Assembly should be con-
cerned increasingly about education, but
it should be on a statewide basis. The
State Department of Education more and
more in recent months has begun to be
aware of the fact that as a statewide
agency it has the responsibility to guaran-
tee and insure the quality of education on
a statewide basis and not leave it to coun-
ties to make the decision as to how their
school system shall be run and to what
quality and to what detriment of the
pupils of this county. For that reason I
would assure you that the majority is on
board and feels no school system in the
State of Maryland is going to be harmed
and that as nearly as possible any pre-
vailing condition which happens to be dear
to the hearts of those residents of that
county should remain.
I think it is unfortunate on the limited
basis of the colloquy on this floor certain
decisions have been made that the direction
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