Maryland schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick has completed her investigation into whether students were offered incentives to attend a rally critical of the Ehrlich administration’s spending plan, but will not discuss the findings until after a private meeting with the governor.
“She wanted to talk to the governor about it first,” Department of Education spokesman Bill Reinhard said yesterday. He also told The Washington Times, which first reported the incentives in January, that Mrs. Grasmick had been awaiting the conclusion of the 2004 General Assembly session on April 12 before speaking with the governor.
Mrs. Grasmick began investigating the Feb. 9 rally after learning that at least one school district gave students community-service credits and another allowed students to leave early and paid for buses to shuttle them to and from the rally in Annapolis, which organizers said drew about 12,000 people, including hundreds of students.
No date has been set for a meeting between Mrs. Grasmick and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican. And it is not clear whether the findings of the probe will be made public, Mr. Reinhard said.
Ehrlich spokesman Henry P. Fawell said it would be “inappropriate to comment on information we have not received.”
The rally was organized to persuade Mr. Ehrlich to fully fund the $1.3 billion Thornton Education Act, which gives more money to poorer public school districts. Demonstrators also called for a recount of the 2002 gubernatorial election won by Mr. Ehrlich.
The Thornton act was passed by the General Assembly in 2002 and calls for the schools to receive the additional $1.3 billion by 2008.
Mr. Ehrlich has provided $325 million of the $365 million called for this year but says he needs the remaining $40 million to help reduce a $700 million shortfall left by his predecessor, Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat.
Though few details about the investigation are known, The Times has learned that state officials have been calling school districts to ask community-service officers what incentives were offered to entice students to attend the rally.
The Montgomery County public school system, which offered its students community-service credits toward graduation, did not return calls this week.
Pam Meador, the county’s student service learning specialist, previously said that she made the decision that attending the rally was worth the credits.
Since 1992, Maryland schools have required students to perform 60 hours of community service before graduating from high school. Counties are given latitude in deciding what is acceptable community service.
Lynn McCawley, a spokeswoman for Prince George’s County, said the public school system did not award the credits because “just attending the rally did not fulfill the requirement for student-service learning.”
However, she acknowledge administrators closed schools two hours early so teachers and students could attend the rally. The $9,000 cost of chartering buses to transport students and teachers was covered by private donations, Mrs. McCawley said.
Other districts also closed schools early, used buses to transport students and offered them “no homework” passes for their attendance at the rally.
“I have very strong feelings about students missing any hours of school,” Mrs. Grasmick had said. “We have already missed a lot of days with the weather.”
Mr. Reinhard said Montgomery County will close on time on June 15, but Prince George’s County will close schools on June 21 instead of June 14, because of missed time.
The rally was organized by the Maryland State Teachers Association, a 59,000-teacher organization affiliated with the National Education Association.
Mr. Ehrlich says the association’s allegiance is with the Democratic Party, but association President Patricia A. Foerster has said the group is nonpartisan. She has also said the association did not encourage school systems to offer students the incentives.
“The organization made it clear that the only children that we wanted there were children who would be with their parents,” Mrs. Foerster said.
Critics of the rally said the school districts were self-serving and hypocritical because they staged the rally to ask for more funds but spent public money to bolster attendance numbers.
Mrs. Grasmick delivered a speech early in the rally but left before the demonstrators called for the recount. Neither Mr. Ehrlich nor Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele was invited to speak.
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