The Carroll County Board of County Commissioners and Board of Education have sent a joint letter to the Carroll County delegation expressing their opposition to House Bill 119. 

The bill in essence takes away all local control for county jurisdictions to make curriculum decisions for the schools in their community. As amended, HB 119 mandates that local school systems follow “every element of the policy and guidelines for the program of instruction” and would also mandate that “all curriculum guides, courses of study, resource materials and other teaching aids” be controlled by the state board of education. 

Moving beyond control of all curriculum, the bill would also give the State Superintendent the authority to withhold funding potentially up to 35 million dollars should he deem that Carroll County is not in compliance with the state mandated curriculum.  

The letter was signed by Marsha Herbert, President of the Carroll County Board of Education, and Ed Rothstein, President of the Board of Commissioners.

Rothstein’s willingness to partner with the majority conservative school board against HB119 was unexpected. The commissioner was one of the few elected officials in the county to not endorse the BMW conservative slate for BOE.

View the joint letter below.