New: The Maryland General Assembly passed legislation this week to give thousands of non-tenure track faculty the right to form recognized unions at public universities. The bill now goes to Gov. Wes Moore's desk. Everything you need to know:

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

The Maryland college outlasting Hungary’s war on universities McDaniel College’s satellite campus in Budapest is thriving, despite Hungarian President Viktor Orbán’s contentious higher education policies.

It’s not easy to operate a college in Hungary. So how does a small school in Maryland, which educates 3,000 students and has an endowment of under $200 million pull it off?

My latest story looks at McDaniel College's satellite campus in Hungary:

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School offers Maryland grads half-off tuition Experts say the unusual move could signal that the business school is among many facing headwinds.

The Johns Hopkins Carey business school is offering half priced master’s degrees for students who graduate from Maryland colleges this year. Experts say that could be a sign of trouble and dwindling enrollment of international students. Read more:

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Salisbury University group to host talk by ‘godfather of the alt-right’ Jared Taylor The event, organized by the Maryland Federation of College Republicans, has drawn criticism from the Maryland Republican Party and prompted university officials to charge the group $3,500 in security ...

White nationalist Jared Taylor's talk at Salisbury University, organized by the Maryland Federation of College Republicans, is back on and now scheduled for April 29th, reports @elliew0lfe.bsky.social:

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Salisbury University group to host talk by ‘godfather of the alt-right’ Jared Taylor The event, organized by the Maryland Federation of College Republicans, has drawn criticism from the Maryland Republican Party and prompted university officials to charge the group $3,500 in security ...

New: After it was postponed last month for security reasons, a talk hosted by the Maryland Federation of College Republicans featuring "godfather of the alt-right" Jared Taylor will take place at Salisbury University later this month:

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Tom McMillen’s Epstein ties prompt University of Maryland student vote A University System of Maryland regent’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein prompted a student-led referendum at the University of Maryland, College Park.

New: Students at the University of Maryland vote this week on whether USM Regent Tom McMillen should resign. McMillen appears twice in the Epstein files, though he told me the vote is a "a Trojan horse" for the real controversy: His support of Israel.

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Maryland grad students could soon win union rights. They want more. Legislation would give graduate students at the University of Maryland, College Park, and UMBC the right to unionize.

After 15 years of lobbying, graduate students at two Maryland universities are the closest they’ve ever been to getting the right to unionize.

But three amendments added to the bill, which they say are harmful, means they aren’t celebrating. Read:

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

These foster parents have taken in 15 kids. Their goal: Send them home. The Baltimore couple is unusual in a state where half of families stop taking foster kids within the first year.

De'Jonnae and her husband José live by one universal truth: Reunification is the goal. These foster parents have taken in 15 kids over 5 years, making them an outlier in a state where the number of foster parents has been declining and half tap out after just 1 year www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

How a screaming stranger got a developer to dream big about the Jones Falls A Baltimore developer was at the center of a charged conflict over the future of a dump in the Remington neighborhood, a controversy that has gotten him thinking bigger about the future of the beloved...

After a developer's bid for a Remington dump backfired, he's thinking bigger. Seawall reached a deal this month that looks to some like a step toward a long-held Baltimore dream: to turn the banks of the beleaguered Jones Falls into a park. w @emilyopilo.bsky.social
www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Rise Early Learning Center helps moms fight social isolation — and find child care, too This University of Maryland, Baltimore, program fights the rising social isolation among parents.

Everyone knows it takes a village to raise a child. But as extended families live increasingly far apart and the cost of living rises, many parents find themselves without the help they need. So moms started building their home away from home in West Baltimore. www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

Baltimore’s queer hidden histories galvanize a new generation As the Trump administration and conservative legislatures around the country attack rights secured for LGBTQIA+ people, Baltimore historians say sharing the stories of queer ancestors has never been m...

Historians, scholars and artists are working to unearth, record, preserve and share Maryland’s LGBTQ+ history— work they say is all the more urgent as the Trump administration and conservative legislatures try to roll back the rights of queer people www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

Johns Hopkins’ D.C. real estate portfolio just got even bigger Johns Hopkins University bought a second building in D.C., continuing its expansion into the nation's capital.

Johns Hopkins University has its eyes on D.C.

The elite university just bought a second building in the nation's capital, bringing its total D.C. footprint to almost 600,000 square feet. Inside Hopkins' Bloomberg Center + the university's D.C. ambitions:
www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Salisbury University postpones talk by ‘godfather of the alt-right’ Jared Taylor, the so-called “godfather of the alt-right,” was slated to speak at Salisbury University on Monday.

Breaking: Salisbury University has postponed a talk set to take place on campus Monday by white nationalist Jared Taylor due to security concerns.

Taylor, a eugenist, is often called the “godfather of the alt right.” Here’s what you need to know:

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Anne Arundel County got caught off guard by ‘devastating’ development moratorium Elected officials, economic leaders and other analysts were all caught off guard by a potential five-year development moratorium in the part of Anne Arundel County surrounding BWI, Arundel Mills and j...

There's a stretch of Maryland that's next to BWI and just north of Fort Meade. It holds housing, the Arundel Mills mall and has been targeted for growth and development.

And it's under a complete development moratorium that seems to have come without warning. Read more in @thebaltimorebanner.com —

No free checked bags? Assigned seats! Southwest Airlines has broken my heart. Southwest is BWI’s largest carrier, accounting for roughly 74% of flights out of Baltimore — and the budget carrier’s recent changes are breaking some loyal customers’ hearts.

The @thebaltimorebanner.com and @bykowicz.bsky.social let me write a personal essay about my heartbreak over Southwest Airlines now charging for checked bags and assigning seats. It also features quips about Pilates and Agatha Christie. Read here:

www.thebanner.com/opinion/colu...

Baltimore’s top educator wants to end the iPad kid epidemic Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises announced strict screen time limits for kindergarten through second grade students.

Kids in the "iPad generation" have grown more reliant on screens at home and in school since the pandemic.

The head of Baltimore's public schools has had enough. She introduced screen time and digital device limits, though she doesn't think they go far enough.

www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

MoCo bill would prohibit ICE building permits The Montgomery County Council announced its latest step Monday to counter the federal campaign to deport immigrants, which has disrupted the lives of hundreds of county residents.

Montgomery County wants to ban permits for ICE facilities after seeing warehouses turned into detention centers in other parts of the state. My latest: www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Hundreds of Panamanian golden frogs are breeding in a closed-to-the-public section of the @marylandzoo.bsky.social in an effort to save them from extinction. Soon, zoo workers plan to bring some back to Panama…

When immigrants can’t leave their homes, this reading expert comes to the door Amid a federal immigration crackdown, scared families are avoiding public spaces and staying home. Norma Montesino is one of the few people they’ll let in.

A little bit of happy for your Wed. morning: We've been reporting for months that the federal immigration crackdown is keeping some scared immigrant families from venturing outside their homes. Norma Montesino is the bilingual Santa Claus bringing reading to them. www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

How a rediscovered Baltimore Bible provides a glimpse into Black history In September 1885, Winnie Harris wrote her last will and testament in the pages of a leather-bound, gilded Bible. About 140 years later, that Bible, now an official government record, was rediscovered...

A snow day read: Who is Winnie Harris? She wrote her will in the pages of a Bible. It became a state record, $ now it lives at the Maryland State Archives — where what she wrote & other records give a glimpse into Black life in Baltimore shortly after emancipation.
More in @thebaltimorebanner.com

University of Maryland Police officer accused of sexual misconduct with student has powers stripped by state An internal investigation by the University of Maryland Police Department found that Meadows met the College Park student on a social media website known as “FET: Kinky BDSM Dating.”

Scoop from @conarck.bsky.social + me: A University of Maryland, College Park police officer lost his certification last month after being accused of an inappropriate, and at times nonconsensual, relationship with a UMD student who he met on a BDSM kink website:
www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

Affirmative action ended. So why are these Maryland colleges more diverse? Less selective Maryland colleges have begun seeing historic rises in applications and enrollment from Black and Hispanic students.

Race conscious admissions was banned by the Supreme Court in 2023. So why are some Maryland colleges more diverse than ever? My latest in the @thebaltimorebanner.com shows how the "cascade effect" is impacting Goucher, UMBC and Towson:
www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

A stunning 1942 photo of a couple inspired a search for a Baltimore love story How a photo sent a reporter on a quest to find a complicated love story in Baltimore.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

For nearly two years, this photo has lived rent free in my mind.

I finally got to find out what happened to Ellin and Franklin, the former Frederick Douglass High School students whose spark electrified this photo from 1942.

www.thebanner.com/community/fa...

UMB shares renderings of its ‘college town’ in downtown Baltimore The University System of Maryland Board of Regents voted on Friday to approve UMB’s plans for a $300 million downtown development.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore got its first needed approval to build a $300 million "college town" in downtown Baltimore. Our latest about the plans, in @thebaltimorebanner.com, includes visual renderings of what it will look like. What do you think?
www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

How schools will respond to rumored ICE ramp-ups Rumors of an influx of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents coming to Maryland have put communities on edge.

With rumors and anxieties swirling over a potential uptick of ICE activity near Baltimore, you may be wondering what happens if ICE shows up to your school or college. We rounded up the answers for Central Maryland. www.thebanner.com/education/k-...

Frostburg State University gets a new president Shadow Robinson joins Frostburg from the University of Arkansas, Forth Smith.

Frostburg State University has a new president with strong ties to Appalachia and a track record of increasing enrollment and shrinking deficits, something the western Maryland university needs. Meet the pick:
www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

UMB wants a $300M ‘college town’ in downtown Baltimore The University of Maryland, Baltimore, is trying to create a $300 million “college town” near the heart of its downtown campus, featuring high-rise residential buildings.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore is trying to create a $300 million “college town” near the heart of its downtown campus, featuring high-rise residential buildings, an outdoor recreation area and even a pub. Last spring, UMB laid off 30 employees.
www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Aspiring teachers thought they were getting a full ride. Then the bills came. The Teaching Fellows for Maryland Scholarship is advertised as covering all tuition and fees, but it didn’t work out that way for some students.

My latest story: "Aspiring teachers thought they were getting a full ride. Then the bills came."

Students are accusing the state's higher education commission of bungling scholarships for the second time in six months. This time, for teacher education.

www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Super Bowl-night ads will push BGE’s agenda to build and run power plants in Maryland Baltimore Gas and Electric has called on Maryland leaders to pass legislation allowing the utility to build and own power plants — an ask it’s underscoring with ads during NBC’s Olympics and Super Bow...

New: In ads to run ahead of Super Bowl kick-off & during post-game, BGE will push its legislative agenda to build and own Maryland power plants, a reversal on decades of state regulatory policy. $150K ad buy includes spots in Super Bowl-night & Olympics coverage
www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Some of Maryland’s brightest immigrant students can’t go to college Some undocumented immigrants can’t get in-state tuition in Maryland, making college unaffordable.

New: Maryland grants in-state tuition to undocumented students if they submit three years of tax returns. But now the IRS is working with ICE, and students fear they'll be deported. It means that some of Maryland's best students aren't going to college.
www.thebanner.com/education/hi...