House Ways and Means Committee advances bill to create commission on teaching Marylanders’ diverse historic contributions

The House Ways and Means Committee on March 26 voted to advance House Bill 627, as amended, which would create a commission charged with recommending how Maryland public schools teach the historic, cultural and civic contributions of diverse Marylanders. Chair Janelle Wilkins presided over the session.

The bill’s sponsor, Delegate Delia Ebersole, told the committee the measure ‘‘will create a commission on teaching the historic cultural and civic contributions of diverse Marylanders’’ that would meet to develop recommendations for the State Board of Education and propose professional-development materials to help teachers present that content positively. Ebersole said the State Department of Education could choose to adopt the commission’s recommendations and would be encouraged to create accompanying professional development.

Members moved and adopted amendments to the bill and then voted to report it favorably with those amendments. During the voice vote the chair recorded five named members — Delegates Buckle, Hornberger, Miller, Long and Hartman — as opposed, and announced the ayes carried the motion. The transcript does not record a full roll-call tally of yes votes.

Supporters described the commission as a way to ensure curriculum reflects a wider set of historic and civic contributions and to provide teachers with training to implement any new content. The amendments do not, in the transcript, alter the commission’s core charge but clarify the commission’s composition and reporting role.

The bill will proceed from the committee as favorable with amendments. The committee did not set a further committee action in the record; next formal steps will follow the legislature’s regular processing of reported bills.