OP-ED: Baltimore City’s School Board Processes Need an Update

by VOices Toward an Elected School Board

The Baltimore City School Board has the power to adopt policies that affect nearly 80,000 children and their families. Millions of Marylanders voted in the 2022 election, electing the state’s first Black governor. Baltimore City had an electoral first, too: the election of two Board of School Commissioners, Ashley Esposito and Kwame Kenyatta-Bey. Prior to this election, Baltimore City had an appointed board for 124 years, the longest of any jurisdiction in Maryland. 

Baltimore remains the only jurisdiction that fails to compensate its adult or student school board members. Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties all compensate their adult members, and some offer scholarships to their respective student members. Even Somerset County, a jurisdiction with a poverty rate similar to Baltimore’s, offers some compensation to its commissioners. This stands in stark contrast to Baltimore City, which continues to rely on the volunteer labor of adults and young people to govern a complex, billion-dollar organization.