Why invest Maryland state pension in private equity?

The Maryland State Retirement and Pension System intends to formally increase the $69 billion system’s investment allocation to private equity. About two-thirds of private equity is leveraged buyouts which load companies with debt, strip assets and lay off employees in an attempt to make money.

The SRPS Board of Trustees is enamored with LBOs and other non-public assets and is willing to pay high fees to participate, roughly $800 million per year. Despite bestowing such largesse on Wall Street year after year, the plan’s 10-year annualized yield at Dec. 31, 2024, was 6.6% or 1.6% lower than a Vanguard blended mutual fund composed of public common stocks and bonds.

The differential left the plan’s beneficiaries and Maryland taxpayers billions of dollars poorer over the period.

— Jeffrey Hooke, Chevy Chase

Seeing the light over daylight saving time

I have been dealing with daylight saving time for 78 years and that’s not even to mention about 50 overseas trips I’ve taken (“Trump wants Congress to end the changing of clocks and keep the country on daylight saving time,” April 11).

I always thought dealing with time change was a minor annoyance. Little did I know it was a “wrenching” experience. Just further evidence of the “wussification” of the United States.

— Lyle Rescott, Marriottsville

Wisconsin reveals danger of judicial elections

While most court cases are decided by competent, independent judges, both appointed and elected, Elon Musk’s recent attempt to buy a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat serves as a loud warning of the pernicious overreach that wealthy donors can have on the election campaigns of our nation’s jurists (“Democratic-backed Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, cementing liberal majority,” April 1).

Just as disturbing as the truckloads of special interest cash dumped into the coffers of judicial campaigns are the conflict-generating campaign donations of lawyers who appear before the judges they help elect and voters’ reflexive antipathy to a judge’s single, unpopular ruling among the scores of rulings judges make during their tenures on the bench.

It is reasonable to argue that voters should have a voice in selecting judges. They have that choice when they vote for governors who make appointments based upon the recommendations of qualified, broad-based nominating commissions.

— John R. Leopold, Stoney Beach

Patriotic act shouldn’t lead to school suspension

As a relative of a World War II U.S. Army veteran, two Marines, an Air Force A-10 pilot and instructor, the mother of an Eagle Scout and a retired Baltimore County teacher, I want to applaud Parker Jensen for taking the initiative to not only know the law but to attempt to remedy a situation that was apparently in violation of the law (“High school student sues Baltimore County Schools over suspension for flag inquiry,” April 10). Here’s how the scenario should have gone when he first brought his concern to a school administrator about flags missing in two classrooms (a violation of the law that states that a United States flag should hang in every classroom):

Administrator to student: “Thank you for calling this to our attention. I’ll get right on it and keep you posted.”

The student then returns to class, the administrator makes a phone call and then lets the student know when the flags will be placed in the two classrooms.

Later, that adult follows up to make sure that happens.

— Rebecca Kelman, Pikesville