The Bull Elephant
  • Home
  • About The Bull Elephant
  • Fun Stuff
  • Contact The Bull Elephant
Latest Posts
Biden ‘stimulus’ will increase national debt, shorten recovery,...
Northam administration cuts off hospitals’ supply of COVID-19...
How to Take a Flawed Healthcare System and...
The curious nature of conventional wisdom
Sunday Memes–Bernie’s mittens edition
State Central Committee votes again for a convention
Outrageous Predictions – 2021

The Bull Elephant

  • Home
  • About The Bull Elephant
  • Fun Stuff
  • Contact The Bull Elephant

Maryland Governor Stands Up For Private Schools

written by Guest Contributor Kerry Dougherty August 4, 2020

It was inevitable.

Once teachers’ unions and associations began using their muscle to lobby to keep public schools closed this fall it was likely that city and state officials – who often owe their jobs to militant teachers’ groups – might try to close private schools, too.

Think about the optics: Private school kids merrily heading to school every day while public school kids sat at home, isolated, eyes glazed, staring dully at computer screens.

Private schools around the country resolved to open while many public schools knuckled under to teachers who want to keep them closed.

Almost immediately a rash of news stories and editorials began to appear, reporting on educational “haves” and “have-nots,” essentially lamenting the fact that not all children would experience another semester of substandard virtual education.

In an editorial that calls this “School-Opening Extortion,” The Wall Street Journal points out that Democratic politicians are doing the bidding of militant teachers’ unions who want to abolish private sector competition:

“New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has said that if public schools are remote-only, private schools must be too. In Milwaukee, private schools planning to reopen were blindsided by a state order that no schools can do so until the city meets certain benchmarks. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has laid out new guidelines that will prevent private and public schools from reopening until the state declares they can.”

Last week the Montgomery County, MD health officer made the first move in that state to halt the reopening of private schools: He issued a blanket executive order ordering them closed in that toney Washington suburb until at least Oct. 1.

If public schools were shuttered, no kid in Montgomery County would get a decent education.

On Saturday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan – a Republican – Tweeted impotently about the situation:

There were thousands of replies, divided between people urging the governor to “do something about it” and those telling him to mind his own business.

It looked like Hogan might be trying to have it both ways: expressing sympathy for private and parochial school families while allowing their schools to be closed to in-person learning.

But yesterday afternoon Hogan issued an emergency order of his own. The governor overruled the county mandate, saying private and parochial schools could make their own plans.

Imagine that.

Predictably, Hogan’s taking a lot of heat for this decision from the shut-it-all-down-till-there’s-a-vaccine crowd.

Nevertheless, the Maryland governor did the right thing. He heeded the advice of the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics that says it’s imperative that children get back to school. And he’s leaving the final decision about sending kids back to class to the people who actually know what’s best for them:

Their parents.

Originally posted at the excellent Virginia blog kerrydoughtery.com

 

Maryland Governor Stands Up For Private Schools was last modified: August 4th, 2020 by Guest Contributor Kerry Dougherty
Governor Hogan and private schoolsGovernor Larry Hogan
0 comment
Guest Contributor Kerry Dougherty

In a long career as a daily journalist I spent six years at The Washington Post, three as a freelancer in Ireland during the Troubles and 33 years at The Virginian-Pilot. From 2000 until 2017 I was a thrice-weekly conservative metro columnist for The Pilot covering politics and pop culture. In December of 2017 I took a severance package and launched kerrydougherty.com where we have fresh content every weekday. Our motto: No days off. I’m married with two grown children and a granddaughter and live in Virginia Beach.

Your life will be better if you click one of these

Biden ‘stimulus’ will increase national debt, shorten...

January 26, 2021

Northam administration cuts off hospitals’ supply of...

January 25, 2021

How to Take a Flawed Healthcare System...

January 25, 2021

The curious nature of conventional wisdom

January 24, 2021

Sunday Memes–Bernie’s mittens edition

January 24, 2021

State Central Committee votes again for a...

January 23, 2021

Outrageous Predictions – 2021

January 23, 2021

‘Vengeance,’ not unity or civility, rules the...

January 22, 2021

Socialism (Communism, Marxist, Fascism) is destruction

January 21, 2021

Oregon likely to restrict access to COVID...

January 21, 2021

Fun Stuff

  • Sunday Memes–Bernie’s mittens edition

  • We’re on the eve of Socialism

  • This week’s memes, Buffalo Man edition

  • This week in Memes–Happy New Year edition

  • Sunday Memes–Stimulus edition

Advertisement

Advertisement

Sign Up for Email Alerts

Select list(s):

Advertisement

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

@2017 Bull Elephant Media LLC.


Back To Top