Maryland’s Interagency Committee on School Construction took a principled stand today when its members refused to become political tools of the governor and Comptroller Peter Franchot in their impossible demand that Baltimore city and county schools install window air conditioning in some 4,000 classrooms by the start of the school year in August.
Last week, Messrs. Hogan and Franchot used their seats on the Board of Public Works to withhold $10 million in school construction from the county and $5 million from the city unless they comply with a demand that is neither feasible nor fiscally wise. But they didn’t specify which projects should lose funding, leaving that bit of dirty work up to the IAC, whose long-tenured and well respected executive director, David Lever, announced his resignation in protest of their actions. With today’s vote, the IAC reaffirmed its recommendations for which projects in those districts should be funded and made clear that it would not be a party to the political brinkmanship the governor and comptroller are engaged in.
Click here to read the rest of the article over at Baltimore Sun