Gazette: State senator scraps legislation to charge fees for magnet transportation

Madaleno says his bill "not sufficient" to preserve programs while giving school board budget options

by Andrew Ujifusa | Staff Writer

A month after proposing legislation for 2011 that would have let Montgomery County schools charge students for transportation to magnet programs, a state senator has dropped the proposal after receiving advice from the Maryland Attorney General's Office...

...Madaleno's chief of staff, Adam Fogel, indicated that the senator had received informal advice from Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler's (D) office this week that the proposal could run into legal problems with Maryland law that requires public school students to receive a free education.

"The Attorney General's Office suggested in their advice to us that any bill may be in conflict with the Maryland State Constitution," Fogel said.

Fogel also said that even before constitutional questions were considered, the required bill would have had to have explicitly given the school board the power to charge such fees rather than Madaleno's proposed repeal of the prohibition on the board...

Continues here.