A school board member argued against electing the Harford County Board of Education and voiced opposition to putting the issue to a referendum.
Board member Mark Wolkow was joined at a hearing in Annapolis this week by a former school board president and three members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who expressed concerns that an elected school board would leave out minorities.
But several parents and public officials testified that Harford County residents should have the right to vote for school board members because they have no say in the current appointment process.
"The system of checks and balances is missing," parent Sue Sanderson told members of the Senate Committee for Education, Health and Environmental Affairs during a hearing Wednesday.
The hearing for Senate Bill 306, introduced by Sen. Barry Glassman, would phase in an elected school board as the appointed members finish their five-year terms.
More than 1,000 signatures were collected in support of an elected school board. Several PTAs, the majority of the County Council members and all but two members of the Harford County delegation support the bill, Glassman said.
"Although we have overwhelming support, we are opposed by certain special interest," he said.
Wolkow, who said an appointed school board would be more appropriate, supports a competing bill in the House introduced by Democrats Del. Mary-Dulany James and Del. B. Daniel Riley. House Bill 806 would resurrect a School Board Nominating Commission, comprised of nine groups such as PTAs and the NAACP, which would recommend nominees to the governor.
Wolkow said he would prefer not to gauge citizens' opinions on the elected versus appointed school board debate.
"If you put it to a referendum, you'll have an elected school board," he said. "But I don't think it's necessarily because people would really understand what that means and what the difference is."
Harford resident Cindy Mumby said electing a school board was about parental involvement and exercising democracy.
"An election is not some leap of faith or some untested philosophy," she said. "Is it perfect? No, but it's a self-correcting mechanism as long as the public stays engaged."
According to a 2002 National School Boards Association survey, 96 percent of school boards in the United States are elected.
NAACP members, including former school board member Eugene Chandler, said that Harford schools were "integrated screaming in 1966."
"I'm here to tell you that Harford County hasn't improved much to this date," Chandler said. "An elected school board would negate African-Americans from serving on the school board, given the history in Harford County."
But others at the hearing challenged Chandler's assertion, pointing to Tuesday's primary in which the first woman and first African-American Harford County Circuit Court Judge Angela Eaves swept both Democratic and Republican primaries to retain her seat on the bench.
County Councilman Richard Slutzky pointed to Havre de Grace Councilwoman Barbara Ferguson and presidential candidate Barack Obama to counter Chandler's argument.
"Their issue was that an African-American can't get elected in Harford County," Slutzky said. "Their presentation was inaccurate. I find that offensive."
madison.park@baltsun.com