I'm delighted that the Abell Foundation is recommending that Maryland recruit successful charter schools and grant them greater autonomy and control ("New effort underway to change Maryland charter schools law," Jan. 20).
I'm equally delighted that charter organizations have been successful in educating low-income minority students.
But I'm distressed to learn that "blue" Maryland continues to oppose educational choice by digging in its collective heels against charter school expansion and autonomy of existing schools.
Reporter Liz Bowie describes a minefield of statutory and bureaucratic restrictions designed to ambush the start-up of new charters and maintain a chokehold on autonomy of the few charters that do exist. She attributes this opposition mainly to school boards which, I suspect, are on tight, short leashes held by the teachers' union.
I'm hopeful, though not optimistic, that Gov. Larry Hogan will clean up the bureaucratic and political morass around charter schools so that ordinary, middle-class families can enjoy more educational choices to Maryland.
Angelo Mirabella, Silver Spring