Building The #1 School System

Welcome back from 4^th of July weekend.  We hope you had a safe and fun holiday with family and friends.  A special thanks to the hundreds of supporters who—despite the extreme heat-- joined Governor O'Malley, his family, and Lt. Governor Brown at parades and festivals over the weekend.  It was a great time celebrating the birth of our nation and the many accomplishments of our state.

Building the #1 Public Schools:

Last week, Governor O'Malley was honored by the National Education Association for his efforts to support public education and provide our teachers, students and parents with the tools they need to build the #1 ranked public school system in the nation.  We told you that the award would set off a series of announcements on how Governor O'Malley is moving Maryland forward and delivering results for the people of our state.  Click the video below to hear Governor O'Malley's message to the nation's teachers.

Tomorrow, Governor O'Malley will make another important announcement on how we continue to reform our public schools and provide every student with a world-class learning environment.

Over the last four years and during some very difficult economic times for our nation, Governor O'Malley and Lt. Governor Brown have invested $1.27 billion in public school construction.  This funding came at a critical time in our state's history, more than doubling our investment in public school construction after four years of chronic underfunding by Bob Ehrlich.

When Bob Ehrlich was voted out of office in 2006, Maryland faced a crisis in school construction and now just four years later under Governor O'Malley our state has made sustained investments to improve the learning conditions in our public schools. All this despite the global economic recession.

More Questions for the Ehrlich Camp

While Governor O'Malley is working to move Maryland forward with Lt. Governor Brown, the highest ranking elected official in the nation to have served a tour of duty in Iraq, Bob Ehrlich spent last week defending his newest pick for Lt. Governor, Mary Kane. 

Over the weekend the Washington Post reported on allegations of "widespread fraud" by Mary Kane and her husband's jointly-owned company in its pursuit of contracts with federal agencies.  According to the Post, "a complaint being pursued in federal court alleges that the Kane Company paid workers less than required by federal contracts and submitted "false and fraudulent documents" indicating that it was in compliance."

Mary Kane is claiming that she is not nor ever was involved in the company, but she sat on the Kane Company's board of directors from 1997-2003, when the majority of the alleged fraud is said to have taken place.  And just last week, she filed a financial disclosure form with the State Ethics Commission indicating that she holds 50% joint interest in the Kane Company, and told WUSA that she and her husband bought the company together.  "We bought the company," she said.   

So while Bob Ehrlich's old running mate, Michael Steele, is in the news for inaccurate and unfortunate statements regarding the war in Afghanistan, it seems Bob Ehrlich has some questions to answer about his new running mate. For one, does he really think Mary Kane is capable of serving as Lt. Governor if her company is found to have cheated taxpayers and defrauded the federal government?

Rick Abbruzzese