BCPS needs a new CEO

I was shocked to learn that Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners has offered CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises a one-year contract extension (“Wait is over: CEO Sonja Santelises, Baltimore school board agree on 1-year renewal, shorter deal than she sought,” June 12).

Santalises must go because the city schools system is going in the wrong direction. Please dump her before the situation worsens!

— Patrick R. Lynch, Towson

Congress must act with urgency on social media

In May 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy outlined recommendations to make social media safer for kids. Yet parents and children are still waiting for change. He issued a renewed call for legislators to take action and also called for a Surgeon General’s Warning on social media (“Tobacco-like warning label for social media sought by US surgeon general who asks Congress to act,” June 17).

Social media has become an important contributor to our youth mental health crisis. We are in the middle of an emergency, and it’s essential that Congress act with speed and urgency. The health and well-being of our kids is at stake.

— Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, Florida

Achieving fairness requires learning about DEI, CRT

The recent article by JT Torres makes a compelling argument that eliminating DEI programs from colleges will hurt minority students (“Here’s how DEI rollbacks at colleges set back learning,” June 13). Conversely, the recent commentary by Dr. Ben Carson asserts that DEI along with its “cousin” CRT are “destructive ideologies” and should be quickly removed from higher education (“Ben Carson: It is past time for American academia to reject DEI,” June 3).

Recent laws passed in Florida and Texas (and proposed in the U.S. Congress) have removed DEI from colleges. DEI stands for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, the ratio of CEO pay to typical worker’s compensation was 351 to 1 in 2020, up from 61 to 1 in 1989 and just 21 to 1 in 1965. That’s an increase of 1,322% for CEOs from 1978 to 2020 versus a typical worker pay increase of just 18% over the same time-period. Tesla CEO Elon Musk just convinced his shareholders to pay him a whopping $56 billion bonus for one year of sales results.

Inclusion means the act of being included within a group. Presumably, the group where important decisions are made. Go fend for yourself you diverse types, the white men in power have “got this.” Talk about a “deep state.”

The other bogeyman, Critical Race Theory, is traditionally defined as a graduate-school-level examination of how laws throughout U.S. history have enforced racial inequality. Aren’t red-lining, Jim Crow laws, discriminatory farming subsidies, the practical exclusion of Black veterans from GI benefits, gerrymandering to disempower Black voters, not to mention legalized slavery, etc., part of the true complete history of our great nation?

Can our students be truly educated and ready for wise citizenship with a (literally) white-washed, flag-waving, sanitized education where these true facts of injustice are excluded from their study of U.S. history? A fair and inclusive democratic society demands that DEI and CRT be included in grade school, high school, higher education, government and corporate education and leadership curricula.

— David Wagenheim, Towson

Trump may endorse Hogan, but voters shouldn’t

Popular former Gov. Larry Hogan, running for a U.S. Senate seat, is a victim of circumstance. As a Republican, he received the devil’s brand last week when Donald Trump endorsed him (“Donald Trump Larry Hogan,” June 17).

Hogan has never supported Trump but, if elected, his very presence could help create a GOP majority in the Senate. That is unthinkable in current circumstances.

These are not normal times with felon Trump trying to regain power and promising vengeance against all who have opposed him.

For the sake of the country, do not vote for Larry Hogan for senator.

— Robert A. Erlandson, Towson

Reader Poll results

Reader poll: Should Maryland make complying with Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold detainers mandatory?

Yes: 80.5%, 364 votes

No: 19.5%, 88 votes

The Baltimore Sun reader poll is an unscientific survey in which website users volunteer their opinions on the subject of the poll. A new question posts online every Monday at baltimoresun.com.