Baltimore and Maryland education news- The Baltimore Banner
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Principal Shawnette Williams collects a cellphone from a student arriving at Reginald Lewis High School. The phones are put in numbered pouches and locked up until the end of the school day.
School cellphone ban may be tough medicine for kids, but it worked
Baltimore students gave up their phones kicking and screaming, but now they report better grades and focus.
Community members rally in front of the Department of Education to protest budget cuts on March 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Education Department staff cuts could limit options for families of kids with disabilities
Education Department officials insist the staff reductions will not affect civil rights investigations and the layoffs were “strategic decisions.”
The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into more than 50 universities, including Towson University, for alleged racial discrimination.
More than 50 universities, including Towson, face federal investigations as part of Trump’s anti-DEI campaign
The Education Department announced the new investigations Friday, one month after issuing a memo warning America’s schools and colleges that they could lose federal money.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball provides an update on the recent violent crimes in Columbia, including the February 22nd shooting at The Mall in Columbia, on February 27, 2025.
Howard County executive expresses concerns about school board’s $1.26 billion budget request
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said Friday that the school board’s $1.26 billion funding request is “unattainable and unaffordable.”
Rasheed Mustapha, a first-year engineering student at Loyola University Maryland, was able to attend the school by offsetting tuition with a Sellinger fund scholarship.
‘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.
Maggie Litz Domanowski listens intently during a Baltimore County Board of Education meeting on July 11, 2023.
Baltimore County 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.
Pocomoke High School math teacher La'Tier Evans helps a student with an algebra assignment in her classroom on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023 in Pocomoke City, MD. Evans was inspired to teach after having a Black teacher in the eighth grade, and is now Worcester County’s only Black secondary math teacher.
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.
Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, attends a hearing of the Health, Education, and Labor Committee on her nomination.
Education Department cuts half its staff as Trump vows to wind the agency down
Department officials announced the cuts Tuesday, raising questions about the agency’s ability to continue usual operations.
The Maryland House of Delegates on opening day of the Maryland General Assembly in Annapolis, Md., on Wednesday, January 8, 2024.
Maryland House passes stripped-down Blueprint education bill
Maryland’s House of Delegates voted along party lines to tweak the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education plan.
Last spring, protestors created an encampment at Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus at a grassy area called “The Beach.” They pitched tents and created signs in honor of Palestine.
Feds threaten Hopkins, other colleges with funding cuts over antisemitism claims
Like many other colleges last spring, Hopkins grappled with balancing free speech and campus safety after students organized a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, left, was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors by President Donald Trump.
Trump appoints Sean Spicer to Naval Academy board after firing ‘woke’ members
After firing six members, President Trump announced his nominees for the Naval Academy's Board of Visitors over the weekend.
Ashley Johnson, right, and her children pick out books at the Our Kids Read Baltimore Literacy Hub, which offers three free books to every kid who walks in the door.
Can this free Baltimore County bookstore get more kids reading?
Our Kids Read opened last month in the Eastpoint Mall.
Commentary: Audiobooks get me through the tough times
Because I know the cost of not taking proactive care of myself during the worst of times, I’ve promised myself never to let that happen again. I’m now relentless in my self-soothing; if what I’m doing isn’t working, I adapt.
Gannon Sprinkle, Candidate for College Park City Council, stands by a Metro train while out campaigning on February 9th, 2025 in College Park, MD.
Could College Park’s City Council get its first undergraduate member?
Gannon Sprinkle, a junior at the University of Maryland, hopes to "bridge the gap" between college students and long-term residents.
BALTIMORE, MD - DECEMBER 5, 2024: Kindergarten students pay attention to their teacher during an English Language Arts class in KIPP Baltimore on December 5, 2024.
Maryland joins lawsuit against Trump cuts to teacher recruitment programs
The state could end up with fewer teachers in classrooms and university layoffs, the attorney general said.
Day cares and playgrounds were previously protected from immigration enforcement activity.
Locked doors, swift communication: How Maryland day cares should handle ICE visits
Child care providers now have official guidance after weathering over a month of uncertainty.
Brooke Bourne, a senior at Western High School, has quite the journey home from school. She takes a bus and the subway to get home on a foggy December day. Each form of transit has nine stops.
Baltimore City Council members press for solutions to student transit nightmare
Baltimore City Council members pressed officials in the school district and the Maryland Transit Administration to find solutions to improve mass transit students.
Corey Bryce reads a book with her 1-year-old daughter, Julien, inside their Columbia, Maryland home on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. Julien has been in an infants & toddlers program since she was about 4 months old, and Bryce says she knows she won’t be able to afford preschool without the money the state plans to funnel into pre-kindergarten education.
Can Baltimore’s ‘baby bonus’ make a comeback?
Organizers of the Baby Bonus proposal, which would have given $1,000 to new parents in Baltimore City, are trying to find a way to keep the spirit of their proposal alive.
Brooke Bourne, a senior at Western High School, spends more than 90 minutes getting home from school each day on public transit, a distance that takes 17 minutes by car.
Baltimore City Council is ready to talk about kids’ struggles to get to school
A Thursday hearing will be the first time public officials discuss transit’s impact on students since a Banner investigation found it’s nearly impossible for them to get to school on time every day.
The Jhpiego headquarters in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Md.
Johns Hopkins University president forecasts possible cuts after Trump directives
In a letter to campus, Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels appears to brace the campus for cuts.
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