October 25th, 2024 by WCBC Radio

WCBC News hosted a forum for candidates running for open seats on the Allegany County Board of Education this week.  Four candidates are running for two positions.  WCBC News asked the candidates about school choice between public, private, and homeschool.  

Candidate Max Green talked about how other areas work with choice…

 “The community school model is such where home school students should have access to a lot of the resources if we do make community schools stronger in Allegany County, have more centralized resources. They should have access to those resources as well so I think there’s a lot more that can be done for very little cost to taxpayers and we have a lot of counties and localities in Maryland that do this and we’re failing to do so.”                

Incumbent candidate Chrystal Bender spoke about curriculum …

“Each family needs to make that decision for their own.  Probably the same endorsement meeting that Max is talking about – it was brought to our attention about some problems with access to curriculum so that’s something that once we’re aware of we can inquire about and see what we can do as board members.”

Another incumbent, Tammy Fraley, says she agrees with having a choice…

“As a school system, we do have the opportunity to provide better information about home schooling but I do believe that anyone should have the option of doing home schooling or attending a public school.”

Gerry LaFemina supports home-schoolers…

“I’m all for and I understand why parents make the choice to home school their kids.  And I support that. But I think it is a broader – it’s part of a broader community issue.”