This was a long day!
Fifteen bills today in Ways and Means. Hearings ran from 1 pm to 6:45 pm. The primary focus this day was Education. Several of the bills dealt with maintaining funding for libraries and our public education system and use of funds from the Education Trust Fund which will be established when the slots venues are up and running.
Another series of bills were on loan assistance to students training to be physicians and medical professionals. In light of the shortages of medical personnel in our rural areas, we are seeing more bills that would encourage students to consider practicing in Maryland.
HB306 – Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children
In 2008 a bill was introduced to allow Maryland to join the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. It did not pass, but a task force was established which looked into this issue and reported their findings in December 2008. This administration bill, HB306 Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, recommends that Maryland join the compact to facilitate the transfer of children in military families among schools in different states. Specifically, the compact has provisions to facilitate timely transfers of educational records, the continuation of schooling at the same grade level and in similar programs and courses, inclusion in extracurricular activities, on-time graduation, and the provision of comparable special educational services for students with disabilities.
I am a co-sponsor of this bill. Children of military families have their school years disrupted by the transfer orders of their parents. Many of you may remember how hard it was to fit in to your own school even if you had gone to school in the same county with the same children all of your life. Imagine how difficult it is to have to move every two to four years and make new friends and try to play catch up in your classes. We must do better for these children.