Author: delsandy

November 21 – Going to school at Camden Yards

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I always knew what high school I was going to attend.

My cousins, Sam and Jerome, and then my brother, Stewart, went to City. I knew I would too.

On Saturday, I walked among the nearly 15,000 parents and children at the Middle and High School Choice Fair at Camden Yards.

Sixty-four public schools made a pitch to prospective middle and high school students.

I doubt that many of these kids have the family links that I did.

That’s what made the event special. These families were doing their best to make an informed decision.

In contrast, a year ago, I saw “Waiting for Superman,” a movie about the lottery that allows a handful of students to attend highly regarded public schools.

The night I saw the movie, I decided to work on education reform in Annapolis.

Parents’ involvement that supports children’s learning, such as reading to their first graders at home, results in better scores on certain standardized tests,Tom Friedman wrote in yesterday’s New York Times.

That was a given in the Rosenberg household. How can we encourage such activity among the families of children who lack the resources we had?

The bill I hope to introduce will try to answer that question.

November 16 – Sometimes you don’t need a bill but most times you do

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“I didn’t need to talk about putting in a bill.”

I had just completed a meeting with top Department of Human Resources officials. The topic was a pilot program to involve the non-custodial or absent father in the pregnant mother’s application for public benefits.

I’m still interested in welfare reform, even though it’s been nine years since I chaired the Appropriations subcommittee that dealt with the issue.

Last month, I heard Joe Jones speak on the topic at Johns Hopkins. Joe is a national leader in helping low-income men fulfill their roles as fathers, emotionally and financially.

My goal at today’s meeting: the state government would agree to a pilot program where both the mother and the father would meet with a case worker to discuss how they can best raise their child. That includes child support payments, a healthy personal relationship, and seeking work.

Just before the meeting began, I said to Joe, “If things don’t go well, I’ll remind everyone that I can introduce legislation on this matter in January.”

The meeting went very well. Afterwards, I told Joe that I didn’t need to speak to a bill drafter.

—-

I was reminded earlier today that most times you do need a bill to achieve your objective.

I went to a hearing on Capitol Hill for the Holocaust Rail Justice Act. This legislation would allow Leo Bretholz and the other survivors who were transported to the Nazi death camps by the French national railroad (SNCF) to sue the company.

Leo had movingly testified for my bill requiring disclosure of SNCF’s records for these transports. He was just as eloquent today when speaking of the elderly woman who urged him to escape from the cattle car heading for Germany.

“I can still see her face and hear her voice today. She emboldened me.”

“This was not coercion by the Nazis,” he continued. “This was business for SNCF.”

Next Monday is the deadline for companies to submit their bids for running the MARC commuter rail line in Maryland. For SNCF’s American subsidiary to be eligible, it must digitize its records consistent with the law we passed.

November 9 – Making the Right Match or Don't Bogart That Point

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I spent the morning speed dating.

My fellow speedsters were Baltimore City department heads and their top staff.

I stayed at the same table while the bureaucrats rotated among the legislators in the six districts in the City delegation to Annapolis.

If nothing concentrates the mind like a hanging – or in Annapolis, a bill hearing, having the ear of top bureaucrats concentrated my mind today.

Among the issues I raised were:

Can we use slots dollars designated for neighborhoods near Pimlico Race Track to conduct a site study for commercial development near the Cold Spring light rail station? Both the private and public parties involved have said they don’t have the money. This morning, the light went on, and I thought of this alternative.

Many couples who integrated communities in West Baltimore nearly 50 years ago still live in those residences. However, they’re aging in place. Census data can tell us the number of such homeowners. The City Housing Department will do the research. Then we can discuss whether the program that the Jewish community is running to help seniors maintain their homes in Upper Park Heights can be replicated with public dollars.

The Forest Park Golf Course wants to add a driving range. Senator Gladden has told me that. So I asked the head of Recreation and Parks to set up a meeting for his staff, the people running the golf course, and the 41st District delegation.

I’ll let you know whether any of these brief encounters turn out to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship – policy-wise.

November 2 – Earning a grade

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I try to practice what I preach.

“When you testify in Annapolis, don’t read your written remarks. Know your subject well enough that you don’t use that piece of paper as a crutch. You’re better off stumbling a bit but always keeping eye contact.”

That’s my mantra for advocates during the 90-day session and for my law school students during the fall semester.

Today, I was put to the test.

Senator Bill Ferguson and I will be introducing a series of education reform bills next January. We’ve begun meeting with interested groups and individuals to get their input.

Bill is a Teach For America alumnus. He knows the subject matter.

I’m there for strategic advice or as “the muscle,” as one of my friends describes it.

Bill could not attend today’s meeting. So I had to describe the four bills, with John Stierhoff, our lobbyist, there to fill in the blanks or correct any major errors.

I’ve heard Bill describe what we’re trying to do with mandatory pre-kindegarten, a scholarship for people who commit to four years in the classroom, and time off from work for parents to meet with their kids’ teachers.

I looked at our summary sheet a few times but provided a decent outline of what the bills would do.

I’d give myself a B+.

October 26 – Seeking a remedy and idolizing Brooks Robinson

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99% of the time, it’s the little guy who wants to change the law.

The consumer who needs protection, the employee who’s been discriminated against in the workplace, or the tenant who’s living in unsafe housing.

The business community tries to kill the legislation or to weaken it with amendments.

Those roles will be reversed in response to Monday’s court decision that held unconstitutional the immunity provision in the Lead Risk Reduction in Housing Law.

Landlords must still abide by the provisions of the law requiring them to clean up the lead hazards in rental properties built before 1950. However, they will no longer be immune from lawsuits on behalf of children suffering from lead poisoning if they do comply with the statute.

I was the principal legislative sponsor of House Bill 760 in 1994. My objective – then and now, is to reduce the number of children poisoned by lead while maintaining decent, safe, and affordable rental housing for lower-income families in Baltimore City and elsewhere in Maryland. This law and other public health measures have resulted in an extraordinary reduction in the number of poisoned children in Maryland.

Landlords will be seeking a legislative remedy to the court’s decision.

We will be offering amendments that strengthen the preventive measures taken on behalf of vulnerable children.

—-

Lots of Orioles Fantasy Campers choose number 5 for their uniforms because that was Brooks Robinson’s number.

I’m a fan of Brooks, but my number is 18. We were both born on May 18.

You could walk up to Brooks and tell him that you idolized him growing up, and he would respond as if you were the very first person to say that to him.

I don’t know if that was the case for the person whose picture I took after the unveiling of the Brooks Robinson statue this past Saturday.

But it’s pretty likely.

October 19 – A different kind of tax

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How is a gas tax different from all other taxes?

The business community supports it.

That’s not my great insight. The witness from the Washington Board of Trade said so when testifying before our committee.

“That’s well and good,” one of my colleagues stated, “but how do we persuade the people we represent that they should pay this tax?”

“It’s an investment in our economy,” one of the business reps responded. “Goods will be delivered sooner, and your constituents won’t waste their time and money in traffic.”

It’s the same argument President Obama is making.

October 17 – It's Not True

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“I don’t think the number of Democrats or Republicans who would be elected to Congress is the issue.”

I forget who said that at today’s hearing. It doesn’t matter.

It’s not true.

Redistricting is all about politics.

The lines on the maps drawn by Republicans in states where they control the executive and legislative branches look just like those on Governor O’Malley’s map and serve the same purpose – to gain seats in the U.S. Congress.

“One Congressman cannot represent both Cumberland in Western Maryland and Gaithersburg in Montgomery County,” said another witness today.

That’s not true either.

I wasn’t happy with the court-drawn 41st district in 2002. I went from being a shoo-in to winning my primary by 245 votes.

But now I love my district and the challenge of representing my African-American and Orthodox Jewish constituents, as well as every other person I have the honor of serving.

A Congressional district has six times the population of mine.

October 12 – It should have been among the news fit to print

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I get ideas for bills from lots of places – community meetings, advocacy groups, newspapers and magazines. 

 Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story that failed to mention a bill that I’ve already passed.

 “States Adding Drug Test as Hurdle for Welfare” read the front-page headline. 

 Legislation requiring applicants for welfare to take a test for drugs before they can receive assistance was introduced in 36 states this year. 

 We’ve been doing that in Maryland since 2002 – with one very big difference.  If someone tests positive, they are offered drug treatment. 

 A Republican State Senator and my co-chair of the Joint Committee on Welfare Reform, Marty Madden, suggested that we do this.  After the initial outcry, we worked with the public health community to devise procedures that make it more likely that an individual will acknowledge an addiction and successfully participate in treatment.   

 In a typical year, 39,020 people were screened; 1,782 were already in treatment;  1,760 were referred for treatment; and 222 were denied assistance because they didn’t comply.

 I could write the Times about it, but it’s not likely to get published. 

 I’ll settle for spreading the word here and the satisfaction that in Maryland, we’re doing it the right way. 

 —-

 My thanks to those of you who responded so positively to the idea of scholarships for high school students who commit to teaching in our public schools for four years. 

 We will be incorporating some of your ideas in the bill draft. 

October 5 – The Ideal Teacher

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“First-year teachers are pretty much useless. To me, the ideal teacher is a third-year Teach for America teacher.”

The principal of a South Bronx public middle school, Ramon Gonzalez, said this in a New York Times magazine article this past spring.

I reread it this week for the Legislation course I co-teach at the University of Baltimore Law School.

After Monday’s class, I learned about a program that directly responds to Gonzalez’s concern.

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program pays the tuition of top high school graduates who attend a public college in the state. They must then teach in a public school for at least four years. Only Teach for America had better test results among 12 training programs.

Tuesday morning, I asked that a bill be drafted based upon this program – with one change Grants equal to the cost of tuition at College Park could be made to students attending a private college in the state or a post-secondary institution in any other state. We want these Marylanders to teach here as well.

Now begins the process of making the case for this idea on the merits and of finding a funding source.

Saturday, August 20 – A Walk in the neighborhood

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It’s been a while since people walked to a house of worship in the Howard Park community at sunset on a Friday evening.

Last night, the purpose was a community meeting about the grocery store for the vacant lot at Liberty Heights and Hillsdale Avenues. The place was All Saints Roman Catholic church.

For more than a decade, the lot has been empty – an eyesore with no end in sight.

But now a deal is imminent. The principals are Jeff Brown, whose store we visited in West Philadelphia two years ago, and the Klein family, who own several Shop Rites in Baltimore and Harford counties. This would be their first store in Baltimore City.

When I was called upon to speak, I said, “In the Jewish community, we welcome the Sabbath on Friday nights with a family meal. My mother said it was OK to be with the Howard Park family tonight.”

“My district office is two blocks north of the grocery store site,” I continued. “I look forward to walking to lunch there in the near future.”

What role do state legislators play on a project like this? We met with the community and then shared their concerns with the Mayor, since the City owns the land, and with state officials, who can fund job training for some of the 250+ people who will be employed.

We’ve also been hearing from residents about a vacant property across the street – the Ambassador Theatre. The 12-year old  Barry Levinson and his friends walked to the movies there every Saturday afternoon.

“Once the grocery store is up and running,” I’ve told people, “the Ambassador will be a more valuable property to develop.”

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning