Saab Legislation Would Dilute Anne Arundel County Board of Education

Proposal to add two appointed members to Board little more than election year pandering.

Delegate Sid Saab announced he is holding a press conference tomorrow to discuss legislation that would add an appointed parent and teacher to the Anne Arundel County Board of Education.

The bill itself, however, is little more than election-year pandering.

The entire premise of the bill is fatally flawed. Saab claims to have a “Plan to Give Voice to Anne Arundel County’s Teachers and Parents.” But Anne Arundel County’s teachers and parents already have a voice at the ballot box. They are among the many county residents who had an opportunity to vote for Board of Ed members in 2018 and 2020, and do so again in 2024.

For over twenty years, Republicans and education activists in Anne Arundel County fought to get an elected school board for Anne Arundel County. It was a dream that wasn’t truly realized until 2018 when the first elected members of the Board of Education finally were sworn in.

We are less than six years into the process of electing members of the Board of Ed, but now Saab wants to dilute the voice of the voters by adding two appointed positions to the Board who will be accountable to nobody. Not the voters. Not the other board members. Not the parents. Not teachers. Nobody.

If Saab’s proposal were to pass, it would be possible for the Board of Education to adopt policies that were opposed by the majority of elected Board members were the parent member, teacher member, and student member be joined by three elected members.

How is that fair to voters? How is that justifiable to all the folks who fought for decades to get an elected Board?

On top of everybody else, several of the current Board of Ed are themselves parents of students in county schools. Is Saab suggesting that they themselves are not representative of county school parents, so there has to be yet another parent on the Board so that “parents are represented?”

This bill just reeks of election year pandering at a time when Saab faces a tough election as he tries to move up to the State Senate in a newly reconfigured district. But there is no excuse for this legislation and no excuse for Saab to ret to circumvent the will of the people by diluting the voice of the voters.