Balt. Sun on Mont. Co. Use of Tasers: The repeated stunning that Howard received from the Montgomery County police is part of a troubling pattern across Maryland, a six-month investigation by The Baltimore Sun has found.

As two Montgomery County police officers slowly closed in with Tasers pointed, Anthony Howard retreated up a small step and backed himself against the front door of a townhome on a quiet cul-de-sac in the Washington suburb of Gaithersburg.
Minutes earlier, the 51-year-old man had asked an officer: "Are you gonna kill me?"
High on cocaine, Howard started the standoff by dancing barefoot on an SUV roof, barking and muttering gibberish on the late afternoon of April 19, 2013. Two dozen neighbors gawking at the bizarre spectacle laughed when Howard jumped off the Ford SUV to avoid an officer's stream of pepper spray, and they taunted police, urging them to use their stun guns.
Police said in a report on the incident that Howard had thrown "boulders" and charged at officers. But a 17-minute video taken by a resident and obtained by The Baltimore Sun shows that when officers approached Howard for the last time, he was standing still, holding a child's scooter. Officers fired two Tasers, shooting electrified darts connected by long wires into Howard's body...

...Anthony Howard's sister, Robbin, said that she and her family have been asking questions about his death but have gotten few answers. The family abandoned legal action against Montgomery County after police declined to turn over any videos they had obtained from neighbors who recorded the incident on their mobile devices. Two bystanders told The Sun that when police returned their devices, their videos had been erased...

 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/investigations/bal-tasers-in-maryland-story.html

Video Report:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bal-shocking-force-tasers-in-maryland-20160318-premiumvideo.html

Baltimore Sun: Baltimore County schools spent $5 million on textbooks, curriculum despite warnings

State had advised against such work because of new national standards

 By Liz Bowie, The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore County school leaders disregarded advice from state officials and forged ahead to overhaul the teaching of English, spending more than $5 million over the past few years to buy textbooks that mostly sit unused and to rewrite a curriculum that has been shelved.

The system spent about $2.2 million on a 27-year-old grammar textbook with outdated references to encyclopedias and almanacs, both barely used by today's students, according to school system documents. The textbook and accompanying workbooks remained in a warehouse for nearly a year, and school officials acknowledged they are just now being delivered.

The rewrite of the language arts program and the creation of a new linguistics curriculum to supplement it began in 2009 and continued through last school year, despite state warnings that Maryland was about to change what should be taught in English — potentially rendering the Baltimore County effort fruitless. The system also paid teachers to work on the curriculum overhaul and purchased other English books. Superintendent Joe A. Hairston defended the school system's actions, saying that the expense for curriculum writing isn't unusual and that new grammar books were needed.

But Hairston acknowledged that the school district is now redoing its language arts curriculum for a second time to align with a state and national effort. And the county's curriculum chief says the first rewrite of the language arts curriculum has been set aside. The linguistics curriculum was released, but hasn't been widely used, according to teachers and administrators.

Critics, including parents and Baltimore County Councilman David Marks, question whether the school district used its resources wisely. And school board members grilled school system staff Tuesday night about the language arts curriculum and some of the book purchases.

Marks said in an e-mail before the meeting that the school board should "determine why taxpayer money was spent this way."

"At first blush, it doesn't make sense to spend money on resources that wouldn't fit in with a new state-mandated model," Marks said.

Laurie Taylor Mitchell, a parent and vocal advocate for more spending on school buildings, said: "The waste of money is appalling."

For the entire story, click here.

State Superintendent Search

Baltimore Sun reporter Liz Bowie is following the story of the state superintendent search, as current state superintendent Nancy Grasmick will step down on June 30th.  The state superintendent is appointed by the state Board of Education.  All 12 members of the state Board of Education have been appointed by Governor O'Malley (D).

Here are excerpts:

A number of observers say that it would be best if the next superintendent is from Maryland but that it is more important to have a great leader who is a quick study. They also listed a set of priorities that include focusing on reducing the achievement gap of students of color and low-income students, figuring out ways to be innovative within the constraints of tight economic times, working collaboratively with the teachers unions and higher education, and making science and math a priority.


Robert C. Embry, president of the Abell Foundation, said the state board will have to first decide what their agenda will be for the coming years. It may be, he said, that Marylanders are happy with the status quo and will not want to embrace a more radical agenda that might lead to a change in the often-criticized charter school law or the practice of getting rid of teachers based on seniority. "I don't know what the present school board has as its priorities. There are a lot of very controversial issues nationally," he said.


But more importantly, experts also said, the state school board should focus on the next superintendent's personality and background as much as the agenda.

and:

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller would like to see that in the next superintendent. "We need someone with a great deal of teaching experience and supervisory experience," he said, adding that the next leader also must place children first and draw authority from the assumption that student needs are behind all of their actions.

"She transcended politics. Her loyalty was always to the students," Miller said of Grasmick.

To read the full story, go here.

What the rest of the State thinks about MoCo

Here is an excerpt from an editorial that ran in the Baltimore Sun on December 15th. (yellow highlights my own)

Maryland's ATM?

Our view: If Montgomery County is treated as a cash cow, it's only because that's where the “milk” is found

In the tony village of Potomac, one of Montgomery County’s most exclusive enclaves, the average home sells for about $1 million, but it's not hard to find properties that list for a great deal more money. People living there generally earn more than those who live elsewhere in the county, but they also pay much more in taxes, too.

Yet when Montgomery County was struggling to pay for government services during the recession that hit eight years ago and raised property taxes at a rate higher than that of inflation (where it's normally capped by the county’s charter), you didn’t hear Potomac residents claiming they’d been treated as an automated teller machine by middle-income Wheaton and Silver Spring. Those who live so close to the nation’s capital city are more sophisticated about government, economics and democracy than that.

So it was disappointing to hear Montgomery County Executive Isiah “Ike” Leggett tell Martin O’Malley at a breakfast meeting this week that the county that provided so many of the votes to re-elect him governor should not be regarded as the “ATM machine for the rest of Maryland.”

That Mr. Leggett doesn’t want state aid reduced next year and his own county budget woes worsened is understandable. But how disappointing for him to adopt the inflammatory language of a raging parochial. He's starting to sound like developer, political gadfly and community newspaper columnist Blair Lee IV who constantly derides the county for empathizing with the plight of Maryland's poor.

No doubt the county executive is most focused on a potential loss of teacher pension money. Right now, the state pays the full employer contribution to teacher pensions, a formula that greatly benefits Montgomery County, which not only has more teachers but pays them more money (and thus allows them to earn higher pensions) then other jurisdictions.

But here’s what happens if in closing a projected $1.6 billion budget shortfall next year, Mr. O’Malley and the state legislature look elsewhere for reductions: Poorer subdivisions will get hit harder. Is that really a better or fairer way to go?

It’s not clear whether Mr. Leggett’s remarks were directed at the governor or to placating critics like Mr. Lee. If there is a rising anger toward the governor and General Assembly for shortchanging Montgomery County, it certainly wasn’t reflected in the last election. Despite supporting the so-called “millionaire’s tax,” the temporary surcharge on high-income residents that was vigorously opposed by some in the county's delegation to Annapolis, Mr. O’Malley won re-election in the county with 68 percent of the vote. Mr. Leggett, a millionaire’s tax opponent, was re-elected with 65.5 percent.

Baltimore Sun: State Stops Practice of allowing Teachers to review MSA booklets before the test

The Baltimore Sun printed an interesting article on its front page this past Thursday.  Apparently the state 'quietly' "...stopped its longstanding practice of allowing teachers to review test booklets up to two weeks before its annual reading and math examinations were given."  Thanks to reporter Liz Bowie and thanks to the Baltimore Sun for its continued series of articles about public education in the area.