A bill making its way through the Maryland General Assembly would require county school boards to establish Holocaust education curricula and would also require the state board of education to withhold some funding from schools that don’t comply.
The Educate to Stop the Hate Act, SB1058, is sponsored by Sen. Ben Kramer (D-Dist. 19), who represents the Aspen Hill area.
“With passage of this bill. I think we would see a transformative effect on pushing back against all the hate that our children are finding on social media,” Kramer said at a March 27 hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee in Annapolis. “They would finally have the opportunity to hear actual facts about differences and how positive those differences can be.”
The legislation passed the full Senate and will be up for a vote in the House Ways and Means committee. It must receive a favorable vote from the House by Monday’s end of the 2024 legislative session to pass the General Assembly in order to be eligible to be signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore (D).
The bill addresses the increase in recent years of antisemitic incidents at schools across the state. In the past few years, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) have seen a spike in antisemitic incidents happening on school campuses across the county, including drawings of swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti on school property.
In September, a group of students at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring were reportedly observed “performing an antisemitic salute” outside of the school building.
According to a March 2023 report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Montgomery County saw a 261% increase in antisemitic incidents over the course of 2022.
MCPS curriculum includes one mandatory U.S. history class unit on the Holocaust that students take in ninth or 10th grade, according to district data. The school system has partnered with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington (JCRC) in the past to offer programming in which second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors speak with students about their families’ experiences and the legacy of the Holocaust.
If passed, the bill would specifically require county school boards to create curricula in line with state content standards outlined under the legislation relating to Holocaust history, antisemitism and hate directed at other marginalized groups. The materials would be distributed to teachers for instruction purposes.
The Maryland State Board of Education would be authorized to withhold state funding from school districts that did not comply.
The legislation has received support from the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, the Maryland chapter of the NAACP and the Maryland State Education Association.
“A lot of young people are confused and misinformed about antisemitism and the Holocaust, and anti-Jewish violence,” Michael DeLong, a Silver Spring resident and president of the Montgomery County Young Democrats, testified in support of the bill. “I’ve often found that a lot of young people are eager to be allies and to try and help out but they lack a basic foundation of knowledge.”
The legislation has been amended since it was first introduced this session, primarily to address concerns from the state education board, which initially opposed the bill. While the board supported the legislation’s goal, it said the bill would logistically counter the way curriculum changes and additions are made.
The Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) also criticized the bill. In a Feb. 23 letter to the Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee, the association said the legislation would be overstepping the authority of local school boards.
“MABE opposes efforts by the General Assembly to legislate curriculum, firmly believing that this role belongs to local boards of education in conjunction with the State Board,” the letter said. “MABE’s opposition to this bill does not rest on an evaluation of the merits of teaching any specified subject matter, but rather the opposition to statutorily mandating the teaching of any one concept or content item.”
Initially, the General Assembly would have created the content standards. Under the amended legislation, the state board would create the standards. Kramer said he worked with the state board to amend the legislation to make the proposed standards easier for the board to adopt and implement and to prevent legislative overreach.
The bill also has been amended to include education in the curricula about the transatlantic slave trade as well as ethnic cleansing affecting marginalized groups beyond the Jewish community in line with recommendations from the Maryland NAACP.
