* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Harris
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
Title
Informational Hearing - Maryland Freedom Board of Education
FOR the purpose of inviting members of the Maryland Freedom Board of Education to share with the City Council and the general public information on the genesis of the organization, the specific funding and programmatic goals to achieve parity in public education throughout Maryland, the action plan for achieving the goals of the Board, and plans for the future advocacy agenda of the grassroots organization.
Body
Recitals
On Saturday afternoon, October 14, 2006, the Baltimore Algebra Project, Baltimore Education Advocates, the Baltimore NAACP, and hundreds of supporters rallied at Green Mount Cemetery to launch Freedom Fall, Baltimore City's new educational rights movement. Inspired by Mississippi's 1964 Freedom Summer Civil Rights movement, concerned young people and supportive adults later coalesced at the Seventh Baptist Church to demand answers about the deplorable status of the Baltimore City Public School System, and the Maryland Freedom Board of Education (MFBE) was born.
A spokesperson for the Freedom Board reportedly declared that "this is about civil rights - if you don't have the same adequate public education in the city that you have out in the counties - that's inequality there. This system, the courts have ruled, has been chronically underfunded for years. It doesn't make sense when state officials make comparisons between the amount of money city students receive to those in other places. The needs here are greater". The Freedom Board's first 3 resolutions are said to have included a letter to the gubernatorial candidates demanding $1.08 billion that the students say the Baltimore City Public School System is owed, based on recent Circuit Court rulings against the Maryland State Board of Education.
The Maryland Freedom Board of Education, a majority youth based initiative, appears to have been formed because young people, those most vested in the public education system, felt that the officially recognized Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners is not performing satisfactorily. Therefore the actions of the Freedom Board are valid in accordance with Article 6 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights that holds, in part: That all persons invested with the Legislative or Executive powers of Government are the Trustees of the Public, and, as such, accountable for their conduct: Wherefore, whenever the ends of Government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the People may, and of right ought, to reform the old, or establish a new Government; the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
In seeking to identify and resolve the many problems that affect our public school system we must be willing to listen to all stakeholders. As a less popular African proverb holds, "He who asks questions, cannot avoid the answers."
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That members of the Maryland Freedom Board of Education are invited to share with the City Council and the general public information on the genesis of the organization, the specific funding and programmatic goals to achieve parity in public education throughout Maryland, the action plan for achieving the goals of the Board, and plans for the future advocacy agenda of the grassroots organization.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the Chair and Members of the Maryland Freedom Board of Education, the Members of the Baltimore City Youth Commission, the President of the Baltimore NAACP, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
dlr06-1057~intro/25Oct06
ccres/freebrd/nf
dlr06-1057~intro/25Oct06
- 2 -
ccres/freebrd/nf