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Maya Lora

Maya

Maya Lora is an early childhood education reporter who covers how Maryland can best support young children and their families, from pregnancy through kindergarten, a critical stage in brain development. She previously covered diversity, equity and inclusion for The Baltimore Sun. Originally from Miami, she moved to Baltimore from the Lakeland Ledger, where she spent two years covering growth and development and Polk County government. She spent her early years interning at The Hill in Washington, D.C. and the Miami Herald while getting her bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University, with majors in journalism and English.

The latest from Maya Lora

Baltimore’s only all-boys charter school wants a chance to turn things around. Again.
Baltimore Collegiate was the only charter school recommended for closure this year, with public school officials citing academic and financial concerns.
Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys at 2525 Kirk Ave.
Maryland tries to settle decades of fighting over funding its charter schools
The Maryland state school board will vote Tuesday on a regulation they hope will bring peace between warring factions.
The school hallway showing classrooms decorated with university themes in KIPP Harmony Academy is seen on December 5, 2024.
Baltimore toy store Shananigans runs on nostalgia and generations of friendship
New owners, same wrapping paper: These Roland Park besties are keeping Shananigans Toy Shop open for the next generation.
In March, Beth Foxwell, left, and Anne Bev Fuller became the third set of owners of Shananigans Toy Shop in North Baltimore’s Wyndhurst Station.
How a West Baltimore charter school’s 30-year legacy collapsed in months
In January, New Song Academy was given three years to right its financial wrongs. It folded in November.
Lamar Richards addresses the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners during the public comment period of the board meeting on Tuesday. Community members voiced concerns over the closure of New Song Academy.
Can high schoolers solve Maryland’s child care shortage?
Attracting kids to the field early could help boost the state’s workforce.
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025 — Christo Rey Jesuit High School sophomores Nayeli Galvez-Hernandez, left, and Amari Cheeks work with Ariyin Reed, 2, and Kross Usher, 2, in Imani Sims’ Pre-K 2 class at The Loyola School.
Speech therapists are stressed and short-staffed. Enter generative AI.
Speech language pathologists are mostly wary of being replaced by AI while still being drawn in by the chance to cut down on workloads.
Too many kids skip pre-K. Baltimore hopes $500,000 will change that.
Vacant Baltimore City properties could soon be repurposed for child care.
At a press conference at Arundel Elementary School in Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott said the city will be putting $500,000 in the hands of the Fund for Educational Excellence to eventually get more city kids into high-quality preschool programs. Right now, about 1,000 Baltimore kids enter kindergarten with no prior classroom experience, Scott said.
West Baltimore will lose a beloved school that couldn’t make ends meet for years
New Song Academy has been called a pillar of its Sandtown-Winchester community.
New Song Community Learning Center in Baltimore.
Baltimore’s New Song Academy closing at the end of the school year
Students will be moved out of a deteriorating building in Sandtown-Winchester, according to City Schools.
In January, the city school board voted to renew New Song’s charter for three years while noting the school needed to get on better long-term financial footing.
Maryland is investing over $65 million to prove blind kids play sports, too
Once "decrepit," Maryland School for the Blind will cap off its transformation with a new gym and two pools.
Presley Serio, 13, on the campus of Maryland School for the Blind in Nottingham where he is a student.
Hundreds already in line for Baltimore’s child care shutdown aid
Baltimore federal essential workers and families on SNAP can get up to $2,500 a month. Here’s how.
Students take advantage of the nice weather and play outside in the sandbox and on the playground at Greenbelt Children's Center on February 25, 2025.
Baltimore police recover body in the Inner Harbor
Witnesses reported seeing firefighters and rescue units ahead of a body getting pulled out of the water.
The Baltimore skyline is seen above the Harborplace pavilions and the Inner Harbor.
Will Maryland’s Head Start programs survive the shutdown?
Head Start is a popular free program with bipartisan support. But the federal shutdown could shutter some classrooms nationally.
A classroom packed up for the summer inside of the Dasher Green Center for the Community Action Council of Howard County, which houses the Dasher Green Head Start Center, in Columbia, Md. on Wednesday, August 13, 2025.
Meet the kids obsessed with everything that terrifies you
Here are the Maryland children obsessed with all things scary and creepy.
Rowan Waterbury stands around his backyard dressed as Halloween series antagonist Michael Myers.
Annapolis charter school once hampered by Trump tariffs sets sights on 2026
New Village Academy, a charter high school, has been hampered by roadblocks for years. Now it sets its sights on an Annapolis opening in 2026.
The interior of the Westfield Annapolis mall, seen on August 5, 2024.
Maryland lawmaker wants to reopen state child care scholarships in 2026
The waitlist has grown to more than 2,700 Maryland kids since May.
Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said that ending the freeze on state child care scholarships would be a "priority."
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.
Students in the Little Reds outdoor pre-K class at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore explore around a creek behind the school.
Baltimore families are 10 million diapers short
Changing a child less frequently can lead to painful medical complications, like urinary tract infections and diaper rashes.
ShareBaby spends up to $350,000 a year on buying diapers in bulk and at cost to give to families with small children. That's between 300,000 and 400,000 diapers, depending on the sizes families need, every two months. Photo credit: Alicia Sindlinger with ShareBaby.
3 in 4 Maryland kids are shut out of after-school programs
Too many Maryland families are ‘scrambling to figure out what they’re doing at 3 p.m.' since most kids are shut out from after school programs.
Students engage in an after-school program within one of the educational spaces at Okinawan Karate Dojo on 6/13/24 in Ellicott City, MD.
Parents and teachers need state child care funding. So why is the money frozen?
The state projected getting back down to 40,000 child care scholarships by September. But the program is still thousands of vouchers over budget.
Students take advantage of the nice weather and play outside in the sandbox and on the playground
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