Conservatives Ascendant in Charles County

[Southpaw Bookworm]

Hey Marylanders -- Watch out for these people! They start out on school boards, but then move on to local and state government. Do something about it now!

From the dais of a windowless meeting room, the elected leader of Southern Maryland's largest school system strained to smile politely this week as she faced angry accusations from a teacher.

She had heard similar questions before: How can you be an advocate for the public schools when you home-school your children? Are you going to replace science books with Bibles? And why are you trying to censor classic literature?

Margaret Young, chairwoman of the Charles County Board of Education, has at times taught her children at home in Waldorf using a Christian-based curriculum. She says she wants teachers to stop assigning books that contain profanity and what she believes are immoral messages. As an example, she cites Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," which is an option on the 10th-grade reading list.

Young, 46, has been a controversial figure on the school board since she pulled her eldest son out of fifth grade for a day in 2000 to protest a state exam she considered a meaningless diversion. But now, she leads a voting bloc that has shifted the balance of power on the seven-member board in Charles, a growing suburban county.

The conservative views of Young and her allies are not typical among school boards in the Washington region. But such ideas have been building on boards across the nation since the 1980s.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/15/AR2005091502508.html

[DBoon]

1. Another quote:

"Why is it that it's all right for the liberal viewpoint to expound the Darwinian theory of evolution, which is just a theory, but it's not all right to have the conservative viewpoint of creationism?" said Warren, of the Calvary Gospel Church.

That these people have the power to set school curriculum makes me want to cry.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

2. You're not kidding

I think as they grab more power, you'll find more and more progressive and science-respecting parents taking their kids out of the public schools and either entering them into private schools or homeschooling.

[DBoon]

3. and you will find us importing our doctors from India

because our school systems are incapable of supporting careers based on science

[Southpaw Bookworm]

4. Already happening

A majority of the postdoctoral fellows and researchers at major universities are international students (and their numbers are plummeting because of post-9/11 strictures and bureaucratic mazes for foreign students). To get a great insight on the issue of religion and science and the United States, get thee to a library and find Carl Sagan's "Demon-Haunted World."

[Devil Dog Dem]

5. Long time Marylander: the state is ripe for big GOP gains.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were major advances in the next decade. Once you get out of Montgomery County, Prince George's County, and Baltimore the state is Republican Red.

If you can get just one of those 3 large jurisdictions to become more "swing" than Blue then Dems will be in trouble (see 2002 Governor's race).

Also, there is no gerrymandering of state seats (unconstituional), so you can rig the seats to always fall in the Dem column, so if repugs ever got their act together and maybe ran against say a weak Dem incumbent governor they could pick up some serious seats in the legislature.

I'm telling you, we can't take this state for granted ad infinitum. It could go read (or at least purple) in a less than a generation.

[thrift_store_angel]

6. School Board & GOP Gains

First of all what this article doesn't really mention is that even in fairly "conservative" Charles County there was a HUGE uproar over the whole creationism issue....this issue was first discussed around this time last year and it effectively died out after a couple of completely packed board of ed meetings. I am not even sure this is the biggest issue with parents now though, i think it is more that the school board just seems to want absolute control and they won't just let the teacher teach their classes. In fact the first post on the charles county democratic central committee message board was about the school board (and those are non partisan elections). I DO think at least a few of those members will lose in 2006. Collins Bailey isn't going anywhere as he has been on the school board since I was in school (and that has been a while), but if he loses a few of his cronies his mission will get a lot tougher.

As for GOP gains in the state they will continue to get bigger and bigger if the party keeps forgetting that there is life outside of Montgomery and PG counties. St. Mary's used to be a strong democratic county, now it is a lost cause. What they do call democrats down there make some of MoCo Repugs look ultra-liberal. Charles which also used to be solidly blue barely went to Kerry in the last election and went to Ehrlich in the last gub. Duncan has been here maybe twice and O'Malley only once. I don't think either of them have been to St. Mary's. Cardin has been here twice. Mfume once. How many times have they been to MoCo or PG? I am not sure right off hand but I bet a lot more. Even Lierman has only been down here a handful of times. Ignore it and it will go away.....that is what is going to happen if the party keeps ignoring its rural counties. Rural counties tend to be more conservative and thus have less resources to work with. You can only do so much with a limited amount of resources. The state party needs to step up and pitch in whether it is by helping to get a some big name speakers down here or by sending down supplies for events (which I will say they did a good job of for our fair booth). There are however other things (like the women's conference) that were supposed to happen but never materialized. Charles County is lucky in the sense that we have a big name in our area with our US House Rep, I can't imagine what it is like in some of the other areas (eastern shore etc.) that don't happen to have a house minority whip handy when they need a big name draw. Anyway I will get off my soapbox now and return you to you regular DU programming.