Follow-up - Bills of special interest to students.... and more work to do!

This set of bills, that I thought might be of specific interest to students, fared pretty well in the General Assembly --- with one notable exception. The bills related to issues as diverse as voting rights for Montgomery County's Student Member of the Board of Education, creation of an anonymous text-messaging system for students to use to report bullying, and protecting the First Amendment rights of student journalists.

Here's a quick summary:

HB 41 Anonymous two-way text messaging tip programs – sponsor Del. Arentz

This bill would amend the Safe Schools Reporting Act to expand the model policy developed by the State Board of Education for reporting bullying, investigating reports of bullying, and disciplining students who have violated school bullying policies. The bill would require local boards of education to create and publicize two-way anonymous text messaging programs for use by students and others involved in or witnessing bullying to anonymously report the incidents.

Here is a link to the bill’s page on the GA website:

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?pid=billpage&tab=subject3&id=hb0041&stab=01&ys=2016RS

The 2016 General Assembly session was the second go around for this bill, and once again it died in committee. A little editorializing here.  I think this is a really good bill that aims to create a real, meaningful resource for students - allowing them to utilize technology they already use routinely (what does the latest research show -- the average US teenager sends over 100 texts/day??) to anonymously report concerns about their school environment and experience -- troubles on their bus, bullying, cheating, broken water fountains, etc. etc.

I talked to several members of our Delegation to get their thoughts on the bill -- it looked good to me, but maybe I was missing something???  Why was the bill struggling so much? What I heard was that yes, this is a good bill --- that could benefit from more coordinated advocacy.  I'm hoping to work with students, bill sponsors, school administrators and others interested in school safety issues over the summer to build a more robust advocacy effort around establishing this type of resource for students. If anyone is interested --- just let me know!!

HB87 – Student Member of the Board (SMOB) Voting – Montgomery County Delegation

This is a Montgomery County local bill (meaning its provisions would apply only in Montgomery County) to extend the voting rights and Board participation of the Student Member of the Board of Education.

Here is a link to the HB87 bill page on the GA website:

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=hb0087&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2016RS

This bill is almost the dictionary definition of  legislation that takes a marathon, not a sprint!  This was at least the 4th time the MoCo SMOB voting rights bill was filed in the General Assembly.  Several years back it got close --- with near unanimous support of our Montgomery County Delegation -- but certain committee chairs killed it in committee.  This year it moved forward with complete support - every member of our Montgomery County delegation supported it - and it finally passed!

One interesting thing for fellow legislative nerds.  Every year in the Maryland General Assembly, every county's delegation puts forward a variety of local bills -- legislation with purely local impact that, for one reason or another, must be approved by the General Assembly. Now, you would think that - as a courtesy if nothing else - when a local bill moves forward with the unanimous support of its Delegation - all other members of the General Assembly would defer to the will of the local jurisdiction to regulate itself.  But if you click on the link above, and go to the "history" section of the bill page, you'll see yet another instance of legislators voting against bills that they have absolutely no interest in. 

Eight members of the House, and four members of the Senate, voted against the MoCo SMOB voting rights bill.  Why on earth electeds like Sen. Hershey of Queen Anne County, or Delegate Kittleman of Carroll County voted against this bill, or even thought it was appropriate to vote against a bill of purely local effect in Montgomery County, eludes me.  But that sort of thing happens all the time.....

HB115/SB582 - Public School Robotics Club Grant Program -  sponsor Del. Reznik/Sen. King

This bill created a grant program, administered by the State Dept. of Education, to support and expand robotics clubs in public schools.  The bill would require the governor to provide at least $500,000 to seed the program. 

Here’s a link to the bill’s page on the GA website:

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=hb0115&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2016RS

This bill passed easily, but the governor opted not to sign it.  I doubt very much he'll veto it

HB708/SB781 – Maryland Seal of Biliteracy – Del. Gutierrez

A little bit of history. This bill was back for the third time this year - it failed even to get a vote in the House Ways and Means committee last year – even though it sailed through committee on the Senate side, and was unanimously approved in the Senate.

The bill establishes a Maryland Seal of Biliteracy Program to recognize public high school graduates, beginning with the graduating class of 2017, who have attained proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing one or more languages in addition to English. The purpose of the program is to promote linguistic proficiency and cultural literacy in one or more languages in addition to English and to provide recognition of the attainment of those skills by affixing a Seal of Biliteracy to the student’s diploma or transcript at graduation. Participation in the program by a local school system is voluntary; however, if a local school system chooses to participate, an individual school may not opt out.

Here is a link to the bill’s page on the General Assembly website:

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=hb0708&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2016RS 

The third time was the charm --- the Maryland Seal of Biliteracy was unanimously passed by both the House and Senate, and was signed by the governor on April 26.  Congratulations to D18 Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez for the persistence and passion!

SB764 – Student Journalists – Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press – Sen. Raskin

This bill – to ensure student journalists enjoy the Constitutionally protected Freedoms of Speech and the Press, was sponsored by Senator Jamie Raskin.  In his other life, Senator Raskin is a nationally recognized Constitutional Law scholar, and a professor of Constitutional Law at American University.  In other words, he knows the subject.

And - if you talk to Sen. Raskin, he'll tell you that part of his motivation for sponsoring this legislation was an experience he had several years ago at Montgomery Blair HS.

In 2009, a student organization at Blair was producing a program debating the merits of marriage equality, in a fairly traditional debate format - proposition, with pro/con debate -  two speakers supporting each side of the question. The students videotaped their debate, but school administration refused to let them air the video stating that the subject was too controversial.  The students and their advisor reached out to Sen. Raskin to help them argue against the school's censorship of their work.

Here’s a link to the bill’s page on the General Assembly website:

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?pid=billpage&tab=subject3&id=sb0764&stab=01&ys=2016RS

This was one of my favorite bills this year. It was filed a bit late (but before the filing deadline), and didn't have a crossfile.  But the bill succeeded, and now Maryland's student journalists enjoy full First Amendment protection.  The governor signed it on April 26.