Merrill College’s Local News Network Publishes 2024 Maryland School Board Election Voter Guide

COLLEGE PARK — With Maryland’s early voting period opening Oct. 24, the Local News Network at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism on Monday unveiled its 2024 voter guide for every school board election in the state.

The Local News Network (@LNNMaryland on Twitter/X) — in partnership with Capital News Service and the university’s Maryland Democracy Initiative — surveyed all 109 candidates, 74 of whom responded. 

All candidate Q&As, organized by Maryland county, can be found here. LNN also published five stories on CNS, Merrill College’s student-powered news outlet, diving deeper into key findings revealed by the survey responses — including opinions about the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, book banning, cellphones in schools, school safety and gender identity. 

“Through our school board voting guide, the Local News Network provides citizens throughout Maryland with information they need to make decisions about an issue of utmost importance: their children’s education,” LNN Director Jerry Zremski said. “Tens of thousands of Marylanders used our voter guide two years ago, and we’re hoping this year’s guide is just as helpful.”

Information from the voter guide will be made available for publication free of charge to any news outlet in Maryland. For more information, contact Zremski at jzremski@umd.edu.

“An informed public is critical to a healthy democracy, and today’s overtaxed newsrooms can’t possibly cover every issue of interest to voters. In just a few short years, LNN has not only helped close that gap but our students and faculty have provided innovative tools and data that newsrooms in the state can use to make their journalism better,” said Merrill College Dean Rafael Lorente. “Our students, our school and our state are better because of LNN.”

The guide and stories were produced by a team of 105 student journalists and 10 Merrill College faculty members. Student journalists also did background checks on all the candidates. A future Capital News Service story will include details about candidates who have faced significant legal issues.

Key findings from the project:

• Asked in an open-ended question to name the most important issue facing their school board, the largest number of candidates — 27 — cited academic issues such as poor test scores or pandemic-related learning loss. Other top issues were student behavior/mental health (18 candidates), funding (16 candidates) and staffing (10 candidates).
• Asked about their views of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, 55 candidates offered at least some praise for the state's massive, 10-year education reform plan. But 42 of the candidates raised concerns about the program's costs and/or the mandates it imposes.
• Asked if they were satisfied with school safety, 48 candidates said they were not, while 21 said they were and five did not provide a conclusive answer. Twenty-five of the 74 called for increased access to mental health services for students, and 13 candidates called for tougher disciplinary measures.
• Of the 74 candidates who responded, 64 favored strong restrictions on cellphones in schools, and only 10 expressed reservations about tough cellphone policies or touted the positive aspects of phones in the classroom. 
• Asked for their opinion on book bans, 38 candidates said they favored policies in which professionals review books to make sure they are age-appropriate. Another 19 strongly opposed book bans without citing existing policies for reviewing books. However, 17 candidates appeared open to banning books that parents find objectionable.
• Asked if schools should allow gender-nonconforming students to use their chosen pronouns without the school telling their parents, 29 candidates said yes while 32 said parents should be informed. Thirteen candidates either refused to answer the question or provided an answer that did not make their views clear.

School board voter guide stories:

• Is Maryland's 'Blueprint' the path to better schools? We asked school board candidates
• On school safety, Maryland school board candidates push for better mental health services
• Should Maryland schools ban cellphones? Here's what school board candidates say
• Support for book bans vary among Maryland school board candidates
• On gender identity in schools, Maryland school board candidates are divided