Howard County Public Schools Superintendent Michael J. Martirano decided in August that over 7,000 students will be subjected to forced busing in order to achieve socioeconomic equality.

This grand HCPSS experiment was arrived at WITHOUT PUBLIC INPUT .





Protesting parents said it would be difficult or impossible to attend after-school programs, be engaged with their child's education, or even know their childrens' friends. Students were concerned about losing their friends, missing the bus, and spending their school days far away from their homes on the other side of town.

One mom told me: "We specifically moved here five years ago so my daughter could attend the excellent, diverse public school 5 minutes away from our house. She loves her school, her friends, and her after-school activities. Now she will have to get up one hour earlier every morning and take a 45 minute bus ride to attend a different school across town, twice a day. She will be separated from her friends and many of the most important things in her life."



The march was quickly organized on Facebook. Last minute changes by county officials required the marchers to be broken up into five groups and routed along back streets . Only a brief meetup in a back parking lot of the Columbia Mall was permitted due to public safety concerns.



Following Superintendent Michael J. Martirano's August decree, the Facebook group "Howard County School Redistricting Opposition" quickly rose up and gained almost 3,000 members. This group urges its members and supporters to change their Facebook Profile Picture to green in order to show support.

HOW TO SUBMIT PUBLIC TESTIMONY: With deadlines for public input early next week and strict HCPSS District requirements for submitting it, HoCo-FEI urges everyone to go to their website this weekend for instructions on how to submit your public testimony before the deadline passes here: https://hoco-fei.com/give-testimony?fbclid=IwAR0RoJVIs8MY87LTTvVg0-77fWkPPHJ585HGZgD3joy9NYeNF0JWl2anefQ

Children from more affluent schools will be bused into less affluent schools while children from those less affluent schools will be bused into those same more affluent schools to take their place. This grand shuffle will have children literally passing each other on the road as they are bused out of their communities.

With the Board hearing coming up next week, Howard County Families for Education Improvement urge you to visit

https://hoco-fei.com/give-testimony?fbclid=IwAR0RoJVIs8MY87LTTvVg0-77fWkPPHJ585HGZgD3joy9NYeNF0JWl2anefQ

Next week's Board of Education public hearings on School Redistricting begin Tues, Sept 17th. Info on how to attend is in the link below. Note that the HCPSS has deadlines and restrictions on who may comment and how letters are to be formatted.

https://www.hcpss.org/school-planning/boundary-review/public-hearings/?fbclid=IwAR3dAfDdxVASHC3AT7GdcdjSGlBapcvuv3EIIQHUkr_tk_vbgTg4mpcROvc#written-testimony

Pre-registration is required and may be done by phone

(410-313-7436, 410-313-1584, or 410-313-7194)

In my opinion, the requirements to give testimony at these hearings is outrageously burdensome and is obviously designed to suppress citizen input.

However, it appears that people may attend to protest outside.

