Zirkin Proposes Elected School Board

Forget a partially elected appointed school board.

Sen. Bobby Zirkin said Tuesday he's proposing to change the composition of the Baltimore County Public Schools board to an all elected body beginning in 2014.

"I would support either a hybrid or fully elected," said Zirkin. "The principle here is to bring the democratic process to Baltimore County finally."

The bill would also create a leaner board with nine members plus a student member instead of the current 12.

The bill provides for a commission to establish districts separate from state legislative and council districts from which school board candidates would run. There would be no at-large members of the board.

Zirkin said the districts would seek to ensure minority representation on the board.

Zirkin served on a task force last summer that ultimately made no recommendation on solving the question of how members of the board of education should be selected. The Democratic senator has favored a partially elected school board for the last six years.

"As big a farce as that task force was, the one thing we learned was that student performance was not affected by how the board is selected," said Zirkin.

Two weeks ago, school board President Lawrence Schmidt told the county's House and Senate delegations that any changes to how the board is selected would to outgoing Superintendent Joe Hairston.

Zirkin called that "a bogus argument."

"That is yet another stall tactic," said Zirkin. "I'm sure that will be the line of the year to put this off. There's always a reason to stall giving Baltimore County residents their say."