Maryland’s General Assembly is the home to a number of legislative caucuses, including the Veterans Caucus, the Women Legislators of Maryland and the Black Caucus of Maryland. Now, it can add the new Legislative Muslim Caucus to the list.
Zainab Chaudry, the Maryland director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, is encouraged by the formation of the caucus.
“We have a broad-based agenda of legislative priorities,” she told WTOP.
Some of these priorities include juvenile justice reform, protections for voting rights for students who have been targeted by doxing attacks, and advocacy for immigrants.
Another issue that’s come up is the way school districts handle deciding how to make up for lost instruction after weather-related closings.
This year, two school districts, Montgomery County Public Schools and Prince George’s County Public Schools, have decided that March 20 would be used as a makeup day for lost instructional time.
The issue with that decision, Chaudry said, is that coincides with Eid al-Fitr, the day that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Chaudry said using that day as a makeup day “sends a terrible message, not just to these families, but just to broader society that somehow the Islamic holidays are expendable or that they don’t deserve the same level of consideration (as other religious holidays).”
“Our communities are now concerned about whether the decades-long progress it took to seek days off on the calendar in these very diverse counties is going to be undone,” Chaudry said.
Public schools are required by law to provide 180 instructional days by the State Department of Education. In Montgomery County, the school system has decided to use March 20 and June 18 as its makeup days and is asking for a waiver from the state.
In a Feb. 5 “Things to Know” post, MCPS officials wrote, “Other make-up days are being considered, but no decisions have been made.”
Once the outcome of the decision on a state waiver is made, the post continued, “the district will update its make-up plan and share a revised school calendar with families.”
In Prince George’s County, the school system is faced with making up for the loss of a total of eight instructional days and is also requesting a waiver. But PGCPS has also moved to use May 27 and June 1-18 as make-up days.
The next meeting of the Maryland State Board of Education is Feb. 24.
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