"county known for its unfriendliness toward charters"

Ehrlich, O'Malley differ slightly on charter schools • Government (www.HometownAnnapolis.com - The Capital)

...Ehrlich, who signed the Maryland Public Charter School Act of 2003 into law, said he would aim to double the number of charter schools and to create a body independent of county school boards that can authorize charters...

...In Montgomery County, Heidi Mordhorst isn't so worried about funding as she is about Global Garden Public Charter School's attempt to be one of the first charter schools in a county known for its unfriendliness toward charters.
Mordhorst is vice president of the board of directors of Global Garden, which currently exists only on paper. This year the school's organizers were denied a charter by the county Board of Education and have appealed the decision to the State Board of Education.
"We believe in public education as a right and a privilege, but we also believe charter schools really are the mechanism by which school reform can be achieved," Mordhorst said.
Some school districts within the state agree, Borinsky said.
"They see that charter schools are just a tool in the toolbox for enhancing the educational experience for children," he said. "They're a permanent fixture in the landscape."Maryland, however, received fewer than 28 of the 40 points possible for this criterion, partially because the state guarantees equitable per-pupil funding but does not currently offer facilities funding to charter schools. Those points pushed Maryland to a sixth-place finish among the 10 winners in the program's second phase.Ehrlich's Roadmap for 2020 includes plans to strengthen the state's weak -- according to charter school advocates -- statute to create bodies independent of county boards of education that can grant charters. These bodies could be universities, non-profits or institutes created for the purpose of authorizing charters, which are notoriously difficult to earn in some well-to-do parts of the state.