When the advocates first met with me in 2011, I thought their proposal would never be adopted.

Rebuild every public school in Baltimore City. At a cost of $2.8 billion.

That is a Very Big Ask.

In 2013, we passed a bill authorizing a $1 billion partnership of the State, City, and City Schools to build 28 schools. (We still need funding for 100 schools.)

Part of the deal to get the schools rebuilt was to close those that had too few students.

For instance, even with the closing of Northwestern Senior High, there will be only 700 students at the newly reopened Forest Park Senior High. Both schools served Northwest Baltimore.

These 21st Century schools are a big investment in the students.

“This building communicates what we think about them,” the City Schools CEO, Dr Sonja Santileses, said at the opening of Pimlico Elementary/Middle on Monday.

These kids will “feel respected,” said Congressman Elijah Cummings.

It is now everyone’s responsibility to make the education offered in these classrooms worthy of this investment.

Since the primary election, I’ve been working on my bill requests for the 2019 legislative session.

Will we have a Governor who will use his powers of persuasion and influence to enact an agenda that includes bills in the areas I’m working on?

Or will we have a governor who takes no position on these issues, leaving us to guess whether he will sign a bill, veto it, or let it become law without his signature?

Speaker Busch will be introducing a constitutional amendment to protect a woman’s right to choose whether to have a child.

There are other issues affecting women’s reproductive health.

Do we hold off on bills addressing those problems so that our efforts are focused on the Speaker’s bill?

Or do we still introduce that legislation, knowing that controversial bills usually fail the first year?

I’ve read about two gun safety issues we could consider.

If you don’t have the support of the Governor or the presiding officers, the Senate President and the Speaker, a gun bill doesn’t get out of committee.

There needs to be a consensus.

For now, no bill requests by me.

I had not been mentioned in a eulogy until last night.

The memorial mass was for Charles Hamilton Houston, Jr.

His father, Charles Hamilton Houston, Sr., was the dean of Howard Law School and the legal mentor of Thurgood Marshall.

The eulogist was Professor Jose Anderson.

We met as adjunct Legal Writing teachers at the University of Baltimore more than 20 years ago.

Jose is writing a biography of Houston Sr.

After reading that in the son’s obituary, I called Jose and told him this story.

Houston Sr. and I both graduated from Amherst College.

I was on the campus the day that I learned that the effort to put the death penalty repeal legislation on referendum had failed. I sponsored that bill in the House.

I walked to Johnson Chapel, where the portraits of the College’s presidents are hung. So is that of Houston.

I touched the frame of his portrait, to make a connection between Houston’s legal work and mine.

Last night, Jose told the mourners of that moment.

The Maryland Catholic Conference will oppose a constitutional amendment protecting a woman’s right to choose. “We challenge all those who value the dignity and human rights of each Marylander to do the same,” declared the group’s executive director.

Governor Hogan trusts that voters would make the right decision if such an amendment is on the ballot in 2020, according to a spokesman for his campaign. Unstated was how the governor would cast his vote.

Time (and the voters) will tell if the Governor maintains his neutrality.

Nothing concentrates the mind like a bill hearing. Everyone who could be affected makes their views known.

That will surely be the case on an issue as important and controversial as abortion.

Legislation enacting the principles of Roe v. Wade was first introduced in 1990.

A filibuster tied up the Senate for days.

Several senators who supported that filibuster lost their seats in the election that fall.

The next year, Senate Bill 162 passed both houses and was signed into law by Governor Schaefer.

Nearly two dozen Republicans voted for the legislation.

One of them was a future governor, Bob Ehrlich.

There would be only a handful of votes for this constitutional amendment among the Republicans now serving in the General Assembly.

That will still be the case next year.

Right to life is a litmus test for Republican legislators. (As it is for Supreme Court nominees)

It’s not often that I help a grandmother fly from Israel to the US to attend a family wedding.

On Friday of last week, I heard from Jeremy Staiman, who designs my campaign literature.

His 91-year old mother, accompanied by Biji Dixon, her full-time aide, had tickets to fly from Israel to the United States on Thursday for her granddaughter’s wedding.

But there were visa problems for Ms. Dixon.

Could I write a letter on her behalf?

When the letter didn’t work, I asked Jackie Greenfield, my Constituent Director, to call Senator Ben Cardin’s office.

On Thursday, I received this email from Jeremy:

Yesterday morning we received word that Ms. Dixon’s visa request was again denied for the flight today. However, they then contacted us again with more specific instructions on how to fix the issues they had with the paperwork. My sister had the employment contract rewritten again, and hand-delivered to the embassy in Jerusalem (fortunately, my mother lives about a 5 minute walk away from there).

When we didn’t hear anything by the end of the day, we were forced to cancel her flight.

But the story did not end there. First thing this morning in Israel, we were notified that the visa request was approved. A ticket was repurchased, and I’m thrilled to report that they have now checked in at Ben Gurion Airport, and will soon be on their way to New York.

I have no idea what factors influenced what here. But clearly everyone putting forth their best efforts in every way possible has resulted in my 91-year-old mother being able to walk down the aisle at her granddaughter’s wedding. My brother and I will have the privilege of escorting her on that special walk, and I will be thinking all the while of how fortunate we are that so many people put in so much effort to allow it to happen.

I responded to Jeremy:

The Lord and the State Department Consular Division work in mysterious ways.

When I come for dinner in December [when I’m in Israel], I want to meet both your mother and Biji Dixon.

Jeremy replied, “It would be a pleasure!”

Closing a school is not fun.

The neighborhood opposes it. Justifiably.

Kids will no longer be able to walk a few blocks to school. No one knows what will take the school’s place in the community.

In the short term, the disruption of a renovation is not good for the students, who move to a swing school while their school is a construction site.

But now it’s time to reopen three renovated schools in the 41st District – Forest Park, Pimlico and Wildwood, and to break ground for two other schools – Arlington and Calvin Rodwell.

My new 41st District colleagues and I met with City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises yesterday to be brought up to date. It was our first meeting as a group.

Today, I received an email that Windsor Hills Elementary/Middle School is applying to participate in the Ingenuity Project, which is focused on advanced math and science for middle and high school students.

I’m going to ask my colleagues, Senator Jill Carter and future Delegates Dalya Attar and Anthony Bridges, who wants to draft our letter of support.

This is how you get things done.

Twenty seven years ago, my colleagues and I anticipated that Roe v. Wade could be in jeopardy some day.

We passed a law that embodies the principles of that decision. Maryland voters approved it on referendum, 62-38%.

If the Supreme Court were to reverse Roe or limit its protections, women in Maryland would not be affected when choosing whether to bear a child.

However, other aspects of a woman’s reproductive health care may be impaired.

A Trump administration proposal would bar clinics that provide abortion services or referrals from receiving federal family-planning funds. This would deprive Planned Parenthood and other women’s health centers of millions of dollars a year.

There is a legislative precedent: After Congress eliminated funding for family planning services and other reproductive health care, if provided by Planned Parenthood, the 2017 General Assembly passed House Bill 1083, requiring the Governor to make up for that lost funding.

My letter to the editor of the Jewish Times on finding a middle ground on abortion is at

http://jewishtimes.com/81252/maryland-also-takes-middle-ground-on-abortion/opinion/

I also recommend an op-ed on Roe v. Wade that urges, “We need to mobilize in the states.”

Standing in front of the Pratt Library branch in Roland Park, I was again honored to read excerpts from the Declaration of Independence before the 4th of July parade began.: For the first time, in my memory, I made brief remarks beforehand.

On this July 4th, as we hear Jefferson’s words, we are reminded that these truths are self evident, and it is our sacred obligation to preserve them.

Later that day, Steve Sachs, former attorney general of Maryland, sent me the link to a reading of the entire Declaration of Independence by then Senator John F. Kennedy in 1957.

It’s well worth listening to.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/07/04/awe-inspiring-listen-to-john-f-kennedy-read-the-declaration-of-independence/?utm_term=.4abe7d2eae49

In October of 1963, at the ground breaking for the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College in Massachusetts, President Kennedy would declare, “When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”

His speech is also worth listening to.

Thanks for your vote, for your support, or for your advice.

I’m honored to be returning to Annapolis – to work on policy issues and neighborhood issues.

There’s lots for my colleagues and me to do.

Now it’s time to govern.

To get a bill passed in Annapolis, you need to count to 71 in the House and 24 in the Senate.

You can’t do that by yourself.

We need a governor who will take the initiative on crucial issues.

We will not increase funding for our schools and improve the quality of the instruction offered in the classroom without a governor who is committed to our children’s education

County Executive Rushern Baker believes that all of Maryland’s children should have access to high quality equal education, no matter where they live or their economic status.

“We have to eradicate this culture of using our education system as a billy club in political season,” Baker has said.

Governor Larry Hogan’s agenda, on the other hand, has been to keep our schools closed until after Labor Day and play politics with such basics as the classroom temperature.

I worked with Rushern Baker when he was a member of the House of Delegates. He served on the budget subcommittee that I chaired.

His accomplishments as County Executive are no surprise to me.

I also worked with Elizabeth Embry, his running mate.

Elizabeth was my Legislative Director during the 2001 General Assembly session. She did a great job for me, as she has in her subsequent career of public service.

We also need an effective team in the 41st District.

That’s why I’m supporting and running with Angela Gibson for the House of Delegates.

I worked with Angie when she was the legislative liaison for five Mayors.

Since she became a delegate last year, we have gotten results for the neighborhoods of the 41st District.

When the Baltimore Sun endorsed Angie, it said, “She has already shown attentiveness to community issues like problem businesses.”

I agree.

I hope you do also.