Tag Archives: Mr. Baker

17

Jan. ’18

Rushern Baker, Prince George’s County school leaders face tough questioning from Maryland lawmakers

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A confrontation played out in Annapolis between Prince George’s County leaders over the school system and how it is being run.

On Tuesday, Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker, Prince George’s County Public Schools CEO Dr. Kevin Maxwell and School Board chair Dr. Segun Eubanks faced tough questions from Prince George’s County state lawmakers who are considering changing the structure of the school system after a host of problems.

Several years ago, lawmakers voted to allow Baker extraordinary control over the school system after a high turnover of superintendents. It allowed Baker to select the superintendent as well as part of the school board. In most districts, an all-elected board chooses the superintendent.

Maryland State Del. Jay Walker (D-Prince George’s), the co-chair of the Prince George’s County House Delegation, asked about accountability.

“Who do we hold accountable for fraudulent graduation rates? Walker asked. “Who do we hold accountable for nepotism in the school system? Who do we hold accountable for graduates crying on their graduation day? Who do we held accountable for sexual predators taking advantage of our kids in our school system?”

In response, Baker said he is responsible. He didn’t point to his choice for head of schools and said he still stands behind Dr. Maxwell.

FOX 5 asked Baker what he says to those who believe the experiment to give him greater control over the school system has failed.

PGCPS CEO Maxwell to meet with lawmakers next week
“I would tell them to look at the progress we’ve made in Prince George’s County,” Baker said. “I think the number of people putting their children back in our school system, you look at the scholarships the children are getting, look at the programs that we’re coming up with.”

Walker said he has seen no evidence this system of governance benefits students.

“I asked [Baker] time and time again to show me something that has been better and there has been no indicators here,” Walker said. “It hasn’t been test scores, it hasn’t been attendance, it hasn’t been college readiness. So we need to find accountability.”

When asked if he had faith in Dr. Maxwell as head of Prince George’s County Public Schools, Walker responded, “Absolutely not.”

The process to potentially take away the county executive’s control of the school system is just beginning, with efforts underway to make it a reality this legislation session.

Baker is running for Maryland governor, so he is definitely leaving his county post later this year, but he said he will still fight for this governance structure of the school system because he believes it is best for the county.

via Fox5DC

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27

May. ’15

Prince George’s Baker gives up on raising property taxes 15 percent

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County Executive Rushern Baker III

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. – A proposed plan to help turnaround the Prince George’s County school system has been dramatically scaled back.

Through a spokesman, council members declined to comment on the revamped proposal in advance of Thursday’s vote. Before Wednesday, not a single council member had come out in support of the 15 percent tax increase.

Now, Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker is instead asking for $65 million to pay for improvements designed to make the struggling school system one of the top 10 in Maryland.

Originally, Baker called for a 15 percent property tax increase to the tune of $133 million to pay for his plan. The new proposal is about half of the original amount, but would still likely require some form of a tax increase.

However, Prince George’s county is consistently in the top 5 spenders amongst large school districts in the country. Many of us don’t think the amount is the problem… the problem is what they are spending it on… and the other parts of the equation – i.e. quality of parenting, home life, value placed on education at home. Lack of transparency and accountability is destroying the county to the ground.

“$65 million is the minimum investment we can make that will move us forward and significantly improve our ranking in the state,” Baker said. “Any investment less than that will not move the needle.”

Baker had repeatedly said the original increase was necessary to improve the county school system. However, some school board members were skeptical about any tax hike.

“If you’re going to have a serious compromise that you want to benefit kids, you can not increase property taxes at all without having a conversation about accountability, transparency and performance metrics. Whether you go halfway or all the way, if you don’t talk about auditing you’re not helping kids,” Edward Burroughs, a Prince George’s County School Board member said.

In addition to scaling back funding, Baker is also suggesting any tax hike for schools should only be temporary. Instead, he’s proposing a tax hike should only last for five years until the MGM Casino and other development projects in the county are completed and begin producing revenue.

While Baker calls the revised plan a comprise, critics call it a last ditch effort in the face of certain defeat. His original plan had no chance of passing the town council, and Baker is running out of time to make good on his promise to make the county school system one of the top 10 in the state in five years.

one blogger asked Mr. Baker to his face where the money was going to go. (See below). However, Mr. Baker did not respond. The problem with politicians like Baker is that they look for the easy way out. Instead of doing an overhaul of education to fix the problems of waste and graft, they just raise taxes and leave the problems to fester. The voters in Maryland are tired of this lazy approach.

The county council will vote at 1 p.m. Thursday on the proposed plan, which council members opted not to comment on Wednesday.

wusa9 contributed to this story.

http://www.pgtaxwatch.org/education.html

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05

Nov. ’14

Rushern Baker loses Question J – Bid to prolong corrupt tenure Backfires.

Rushern Baker - Appears to be driving corruption to new heights

Rushern Baker – Appears to be driving corruption to new heights

Prince George’s voters returned Democratic county executive Rushern L. Baker III to office Tuesday, along with all of the party’s nominees for council seats. Baker’s return to office was partly because he was unopposed after our initial support which kept many competitors away thinking Mr. Baker was an ethical leader.

But a proposal on the Prince George’s ballot to allow the county executive and council members to serve a maximum of three terms instead of two lost narrowly, 51 percent to 49 percent,  keeping the county the only locality in the region with such a limit because of the political corruption involving Baker and his company.

Many Thanks to our supporters who visited our blogs and went to the polling stations across the county to vote “NO” to this unethical practice advanced by Mr. Rushern Baker III. The idea that it takes a lot of time to learn the job is bogus. What takes a long time to learn is how to perpetuate yourself into office and long-term corruption to set it in.. How about cutting the salary by 50% after the first term and another 25% after the second term, then we could see how anxious they are to run for reelection. Eight years in office is quite long enough; we are sure there are plenty of other people in a county as diverse as ours who could serve wonderfully on the Council and as county Executive.

In nonpartisan school board seats for Prince George’s County, Lupi Grady unseated incumbent Peggy Higgins while Carolyn Boston and Soyna Williams easily won reelection. A third incumbent, Amber Waller, was deadlocked with challenger Dinora Hernandez early Wednesday by the time of going to the press.

According to Washington Post, Baker said that he was disappointed, but that he saw the result not as a reflection of voters’ opinions of him but of their misgivings about elected officials in general. Baker then added, “If you ask the very same voters, [the numbers] will show I’m extremely popular,” he said. However, Reform Sasscer Movement disagrees with that view. If it was not for our efforts together with other community organizations who fought for Mr. Baker to run unopposed, he will not be the County Executive today.

In the Prince George’s school board race, community engagement was also a resonating theme, along with raising academic achievement, retaining quality teachers and meeting the school system’s infrastructure needs. Mismanagement of public funds and unending corruption spearheaded by Mr. Baker and his close friends is another issue affecting the Prince George’s County today. In fact, Mr. Baker’s greed in advancing Question J which he lost soundly might have been the reason why Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown lost the Governorship in the first place. On this note, Mr. Baker owes the democratic party an explanation and he should be impeached for running a self centered campaign after interfering with some members of Democratic central committee during “recession” according to one member who sought to remain anonymous. She explained that some members might have been “bribed” to make bad deals the way they did, hence diving the party right in the middle across the state.

The other question which we did not receive our desired results was question H. Question H,  dwelt with a request that the county only be required to have at least one newspaper of record. Instead of the current rule of having at least three papers of record, the county would also use county-maintained electronic media for such items.

While this may seem minor, it’s actually a big deal. Legal information needs to be easily accessible by the community and, unfortunately, computers are not yet readily available to all residents. One only needs to look at the struggle libraries have encountered as job-seekers compete with students for free computer time. In any case, we plan to challenge this issue with the court system in the future because of the way this issue was handled by Mr. Baker.

All in all, Prince George’s voters determination to defeat Question J in the ballot was received with much satisfaction by Reform Sasscer Movement for Prince George’s County. We know for sure that we put up a brave fight on this issue for the betterment of the Prince George’s County. Mr. Baker will be leaving office in Four years if not sooner!  The proposal to limit County Council members and the county executive to three terms in office rather than two was a major disaster for Mr. Baker and his political family from the very beginning.

Enjoy political purgatory Mr. Rushern Baker III – you’ve just voted yourself  INTO HELL. The residents of Prince George’s County finally had enough and spoke out against you. Good for Prince George’s County and the state of Maryland.

To us in the Reform movement, the defeat of Question J in particular is good news for the Future of the county…A luta continua!

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Prince George's County

Prince George’s County

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