AFT-MD Reps Testify on Charter School Legislation

Members of the AFT-Maryland legislative team testified in opposition to four charter school bills for which hearings were held March 13. The bills proposed making a study of ways to improve to charter schools, allowing charter schools to directly hire school personnel, establishing an independent charter school advisory council, and proposing that charter schools be allowed to certify their own principals.

Speaking on behalf of President Marietta English in hearings before the house Ways and Means Committee, AFT-Maryland representatives testified that charter schools were public schools and should be administered under the same policies, rules, and procedures. Attempts to establish charter schools as part of a separate educational system with independent hiring, certification, and administrative policies and procedures, AFT-MD reps said, would undermine the very concept of public education.