DELS. MALONE AND DeBOY TELL GATHERING OF PARENTS:
‘IT ISN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER; WE STILL HAVE A CHANCE’
By Alan Z. Forman
Reacting to anger and frustration of parents and parishioners over the announced closing of numerous area parochial schools by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, two members of the state House of Delegates representing Hale- thorpe and Arbutus threatened Friday to stall legislation in Annapolis favored by the church in order to pressure Archbish- op Edwin F. O’Brien not to close the more successful schools.
Addressing an emotionally-charged community meeting at the Ascension School of Halethorpe, one of the best of the Baltimore-area Catholic schools, Maryland Delegates James E. Malone Jr. and Steven J. DeBoy Sr., Democrats representing Baltimore and Howard Counties’ District 12A, specifically cited the so-called “BOAST Bill” as an example of legislation the archdiocese wants passed and which they and other legislators could hold up — as pressure to keep the schools open.
The committee working on Catholic school “consolidation” and a long-term plan to reorganize the system on a more solid monetary basis has strongly urged passage of the tax-credit legislation — known as Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers in Maryland — as integral to the solution of the archdiocesan schools’ financial problems.
By Stephen Janis and Alan Z. Forman 
