Liz Bowie

Baltimore’s top educator wants to end the iPad kid epidemic Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises announced strict screen time limits for kindergarten through second grade students.

Kids in the "iPad generation" have grown more reliant on screens at home and in school since the pandemic.

The head of Baltimore's public schools has had enough. She introduced screen time and digital device limits, though she doesn't think they go far enough.

www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

MoCo bill would prohibit ICE building permits The Montgomery County Council announced its latest step Monday to counter the federal campaign to deport immigrants, which has disrupted the lives of hundreds of county residents.

Montgomery County wants to ban permits for ICE facilities after seeing warehouses turned into detention centers in other parts of the state. My latest: www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Gas industry insider sat in on Moore administration interviews for new utility regulators An American Gas Association employee participated in the interview process for the top leadership roles at the state’s utility regulating agency.

New: Gov. Moore's admin invited a natural gas industry insider to sit in on interviews to determine the latest Public Service Commission appointees. Records show the official was the only non-government employee present for the interviews: www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Who could be Maryland’s next House speaker? With Maryland House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones resigning from her leadership post, delegates will need to elect a new leader to preside over the chamber as they face challenging issues fro...

Who will be the next speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates?

Meet 10 delegates who could contend for the top job:

www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

School buses for every Baltimore student seemed impossible — until now School transportation company HopSkipDrive used AI and a Banner analysis to map how yellow buses, vans and cars could get Baltimore students to school safely and on time for less than 5% of the distri...

In journalism we’re used to pointing out problems, not solving them. This was a chance to think differently and offer Baltimore kids and parents solutions.

Take a look and tell us what you think.

www.thebanner.com/education/k-...

We set out to see if there were solutions. And we found at least one. It would get 35,000 students to school using yellow buses, vans and cars — in one trip.

A system that struggles to get adults to work on time was not designed to get children as young as 11 to school safely.

What makes it worse is that after fifth grade, every student can choose their school. What was intended to be a liberating process complicates daily commutes.

We investigated just how bad the problem was. Turns out it’s terrible — a quarter of city buses that students take in the morning don’t show up on time. Or at all.
And the result is Baltimore’s kids are left behind — often failing their first-period classes.

For more than a decade I’ve heard Baltimore students and parents complain about the messy and sometimes dangerous process of getting to school.

And for more than a decade school leaders have ignored the problem.

The hidden cost of saving the Chesapeake Bay: millions for private waterfronts Virtually all of the Chesapeake Bay’s shoreline is privately owned, which means taxpayer-funded waterfront improvements go to properties with limited public access.

Just one in 533 miles of Anne Arundel County shoreline is open to the public while taxpayers fund millions for private waterfronts.

Can Maryland balance what’s best for the Chesapeake Bay with the public’s right to enjoy it? w/ @leeosanderlin.bsky.social &Alex Mann
www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Preschool without a building could be in Maryland’s future Maryland is one of just a handful of states piloting licenses for outdoor, nature-based child care programs.

Do you ever get so overwhelmed at work you need to take a walk to clear your head? It happens to kids, too, which is why they should go outside, play and learn naturally from the world around them. Click for the cute pictures, keep reading for the brain science www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

It’s not just late buses: Baltimore kids face serious safety risks Baltimore students have been followed, harassed, assaulted and held up at gunpoint while crisscrossing the city on public transit to get to and from school.

NEW: Baltimore students told about their experiences with violence and harassment on the way to school in the state's only district without yellow bus service for middle and high schoolers.

@lizbowie.bsky.social and I on what students are facing every day

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

Want better school commutes? First, find out who’s riding the bus Without data, experts say, it’s all but impossible for school officials and transit planners to find solutions for the thousands of Baltimore City kids who struggle to get to class on time every day.

Our latest on the difficulties city school students have getting to school on mass transit. No one has surveyed students to know how many of the 25,000 students who get MTA passes use them. Neither MTA or the school system collects this information.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

Retired Howard schools chief to lead Western Maryland school district Michael Martirano left the Howard County Public School System abruptly last year.

Michael Martirano, who abruptly retired as superintendent of Howard County schools last year, will soon take the helm in Allegany County.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

Can MTA’s new budget get Baltimore students to school on time? It could mean years before as many as 25,000 Baltimore City Public Schools students see much change in their journeys to school.

When we talked to MTA Administrator Holly Arnold for our "Transit Nightmare" investigation, she expressed confidence that the governor's budget would provide some relief for Baltimore's students.

Read Daniel Zawodny on the budget and MTA's Sisyphean task.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/tr...

Eastern Baltimore County is changing. Will its representation? The Baltimore County Council is expanding from seven districts to nine in 2026, after voters approved the change last fall. What that will look like is unclear.

Will representation change in Eastern Baltimore County? www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

Super proud of the @thebaltimorebanner.com newsroom for winning an IRE award for our Key Bridge collapse coverage. At the time, we didn't even have a live blog, but we did have great journalists who know this community and what the bridge meant to it.

New court filings reveal total of 19 men allege sexual abuse and cover up at Calvert Hall The number of men who say they were victims of sexual abuse at Calvert Hall College High School has grown to 19, according to lawsuits filed this week.

NEW: At least 19 men have now filed lawsuits that claim they were sexually abused as children while at Calvert Hall, an independent, all-boys Catholic school in Baltimore County. Read more in @thebaltimorebanner.com:

Maryland schools face ‘catastrophic’ loss of $418 million in federal funds The U.S. Department of Education told Maryland education leaders that they will not reimburse schools for $418 million in funds they had already committed to giving them.

The U.S. Department of Education told Maryland's education leaders it won't be reimbursing up to $418 million in funds it already promised to the state, including about $305 million that was already spent. Led by @lizbowie.bsky.social www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

Prince George's County was 80% white when the federal workforce was integrated. Today, PG and Charles County are America's most affluent majority-Black counties with~20% of Black workers there being federal employees.

Trump's cuts now threaten generations of progress.

story👇🏾

He once hurt a neighborhood. Now, all he wants to do is give back. How a man uses fitness, friendship and faith to give back to a neighborhood he’s wronged before.

Great read + photos by @jasminevaughnhall.bsky.social & @kaitlinobscura.bsky.social: How one man is lifting up West Baltimore’s Penn-North through fitness, faith and friendship www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

NTSB slams MDTA, urges assessment of Chesapeake Bay Bridge The Francis Scott Key Bridge was 30 times more susceptible to ship strikes than it should have been, a federal official said Thursday.

ICYMI:

What Education Department closure could mean for Maryland schools, colleges President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order later today to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

New from me and @lizbowie.bsky.social: What closing the Dept of Education would mean for the $1.6 billion in funding that flows to Maryland schools and the $754 million that goes to the state’s public colleges and universities from the federal government:
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/ed...

Where do Maryland's federal employees live and work? Thousands of federal workers call Maryland home. Many of them also work in offices across the state.

NEW: 1 in every 10 workers in Maryland is employed by the federal government.

It's also home to thousands of jobs at agencies like NIH.

The data tells us a lot about which communities rely the most on federal jobs.

Read at @thebaltimorebanner.com

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/economy/care...

‘Devastating’ cuts could be coming to Maryland college scholarships State legislators are now weighing whether to cut scholarship funds for students at private colleges by 50% for the second year in a row.

Maryland legislators are currently deciding whether to cut a state scholarship program by 50% for the second year in a row. The financial impacts would be “devastating,” college presidents told me. Some had to layoff workers to deal with last year’s cuts:
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/hi...

Johns Hopkins' aid groups begin layoffs and prep for smaller footprint Jhpiego and the Center for Communication Programs, global aid groups affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, have begun layoffs and a reorganization as millions in federal funding from USAID is cut ...

Baltimore-based global aid groups dependent on USAID funds lay off workers around the world and in Baltimore. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/johns-hopkin...

Baltimore Co. school board censures member for ‘disrespectful conduct’ Maggie Domanowski is accused of using a “tone and manner that was perceived as uncivil and aggressive” during a Jan. 28 school board meeting.

Fascinating piece about how the school board censured a member for asking questions about a $2.3 billion budget. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

Judge blocks Trump cuts to Maryland teacher recruitment efforts The initial victory comes the same day the Department of Education said it would lay off more than 1,300 employees.

Maryland is facing a teacher shortage. Trump's Department of Ed cut off grant funding last month that was supposed to help get more teachers into understaffed classrooms, including at least $10 mil for MD. Yesterday, a judge granted some temporary relief www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-...

How might Maryland politicians raise your taxes and what could it cost you? What exactly — and who — is on the table to raise more money for Maryland? Here’s a look at the options.

At this moment, Maryland lawmakers are considering a new 2.5% tax on services that businesses sell to each other -- an issue that's gaining plenty of attention.

What else is on the table for raising money? I made a list:

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...