washingtonmonthly--2020-01-13--Who Does Maryland’s Governor Really Work For?

For years , Never Trump Republicans have courted Larry Hogan to run for president .
It ’ s easy to see why .
He ’ s won two gubernatorial elections in Maryland , where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one ; he ’ s currently one of the most popular governors in America ; and he ’ s widely viewed as a moderate who ’ s willing to reach across the aisle .
The late-night talk-show host Seth Meyers recently described him as “ a Republican who believes in climate change.
” In June , he ’ s publishing a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential bid .
Last spring , he launched a national advocacy group , An America United , designed to break partisan gridlock and “ bring people together to advance bold , common-sense solutions for all Americans.
” Simply put , everything about Larry Hogan ’ s public image would lead you to believe he ’ s the opposite of Donald Trump .
But Hogan , it turns out , has more in common with Trump than his reputation suggests .
Both are real-estate executives who have refused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ office .
Just as Trump maintained his ownership of the Trump Organization when he became president , Hogan maintained ownership of HOGAN , a multipurpose real-estate brokerage firm , when he became governor .
Both have left close family members in charge of their businesses—Trump with his children ; Hogan with his brother , Timothy—and created arrangements that allow them to be apprised of the company ’ s dealings .
In other words , they have set up situations in which they can use their powerful government positions to increase their private profits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s signature policies has been to expand state spending on roads , highways , and bridges at the expense of mass transit .
His most controversial policy to date was to cancel the Red Line—a planned $ 2.9 billion metro rail line through Baltimore , for which the state had already acquired land .
In the process , Hogan gave up $ 900 million in federal aid from the Obama administration .
As The Baltimore Sun put it , “ Hogan freed up hundred [ sic ] of millions of dollars he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shift in the state ’ s transportation priorities from public transit to road projects.
” Hogan has advanced a number of major state transportation projects that are near properties his company owns , a development that can boost the value of those properties .
Before canceling the Red Line , he approved construction of an interchange down the road from a parcel of land his company controlled .
Later , he approved millions of dollars in road and sidewalk improvements near property he had bought approximately two years earlier and was turning into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that an official may not partake in a decision if the official or a qualifying relative—defined as a parent , spouse , child , or sibling—has an economic interest in the matter and the official or employee knows of the interest .
These decisions “ certainly seem to implicate the statute , ” said Virginia Canter , the chief ethics counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a former ethics adviser for the International Monetary Fund .
“ It looks like there ’ s credible evidence of a violation.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grown while he has been in office .
In 2014 , the year before he became governor , his company had ownership in 30 real-estate limited-liability companies , or LLCs , according to his financial-disclosure forms .
Now , he has 43 .
HOGAN is currently selling or leasing more than 20 properties throughout the state , according to its website , and has completed other real-estate deals over the past five years .
But Hogan has not revealed payments he has received from specific real-estate transactions while in office .
“ He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across the state—who he ’ s in charge of regulating in one way or another—and the public has no idea who they are , ” said Democrat John Willis , a former Maryland secretary of state and now a University of Baltimore politics professor and a historian of Maryland politics and government .
Hogan ’ s income has far exceeded his official yearly government salary of roughly $ 180,000 .
From 2015 to 2018 , his first three years as governor , he made a total of roughly $ 2.4 million , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which he released during his 2018 reelection campaign .
But he has refused to release his returns for the years before he became governor , much like Donald Trump , giving the public no way to compare his earnings before and after he ascended to Annapolis .
In addition , the tax returns Hogan has released do not include attached statements detailing the sources of his private income , effectively hiding what entities were paying him .
The amount he ’ s made while in office is unprecedented .
According to Willis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ governor than any other governor in the history of the state— and is the only one to have made millions of dollars while in office .
In February 2018 , Maryland Matters , a state-based politics and policy website , reported that Hogan held ownership in a company called Brandywine Crossing Realty Partners LLC .
The company was chartered on March 9 , 2015 , and it became a controlling partner for a parcel of land behind the Brandywine Crossing Shopping Center in Prince George ’ s County .
The land was just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transportation project : a new highway interchange .
As Maryland Matters reported , development funding for this project was first allocated by Hogan ’ s predecessor , Democrat Martin O ’ Malley , and it had been studied by state transportation planners since 1984 .
“ There is no indication that the governor deliberately took an official action to benefit himself financially , ” the site wrote .
But there ’ s more to the story—and reason for greater concern .
Several months before the governor ’ s company took control of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration—not O ’ Malley ’ s—earmarked $ 58 million to build this interchange .
In April 2015 , the general assembly approved the project .
Hogan did not notify legislators that he had property interests nearby before the vote .
The allocation for the interchange was made as part of Maryland ’ s annual transportation budget process .
Each September , the Maryland governor releases a draft six-year transportation budget .
It includes transit projects that the government is considering or actively building , along with the phase that each is in .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a finalized version .
The legislature then takes several months to deliberate on the budget—for which the gubernatorial staff lobbies—before voting on it .
Lawmakers can vote down individual projects but can ’ t add any .
In O ’ Malley ’ s final 2014–19 transportation budget , the Brandywine project was in a planning phase of development .
When O ’ Malley released Maryland ’ s draft 2015–20 transportation budget , it was not mentioned .
But when Hogan released the finalized 2015–20 budget five months later , he moved the overpass @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in new funding .
A source familiar with the situation said that the decision to expedite the project was made during meetings that included the governor , which took place in November and December 2014 , after Hogan was elected but before he was sworn in .
Hogan didn ’ t become a controlling partner for the Brandywine property until the following March , but it ’ s not clear when his negotiations to gain a stake in the property began .
Real-estate executives I spoke to who are familiar with the process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the past , said these deals typically take months ( and in some cases years ) to complete .
Hogan ’ s communications director , Michael Ricci , said that advancing the Brandywine project had nothing to do with Hogan .
“ The governor has never made a decision on an individual project , ” he said .
But a Maryland Department of Transportation ( MDOT ) official familiar with the process , who spoke on the condition of anonymity , said that wasn ’ t true .
Ricci ’ s claim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t pass the laugh test.
” The governor , at the very least , has signed off on every decision .
“ The [ transportation ] secretary can propose it , but it ’ s the governor ’ s call , ” the official said .
Maryland ’ s constitution declares that the governor is responsible for sending the budget to the legislature “ in such form and detail as he shall determine.
” Warren Deschenaux , who directed Annapolis ’ s nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services for decades , said Maryland ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most executive driven in the nation .
He called Hogan ’ s claim that he hasn ’ t made any decisions in his transportation budget a “ ridiculous assertion.
” Former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening , a Democrat , added that the governor is the sole official responsible for moving transportation projects into construction : “ Those decisions are going to have to be the governor ’ s decision and not someone in government bureaucracy.
” Multiple legislators said they were not informed of the governor ’ s nearby real-estate interests before voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ certainly had none of this information when working on the budget committees or in discussions , ” said Bill Ferguson , a Democratic Maryland state senator , when we spoke in September .
( In October , Ferguson was selected to become the Maryland Senate ’ s next president . )
“ Had I known this information , I think there would have been much more targeted and purposeful questions about the necessity of projects that appear to have a financial benefit to the governor.
” ( Hogan listed his holdings in real-estate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ State Ethics Commission , filed 17 days after the legislature approved his first budget , but he did not identify specific properties , let alone the dates of acquisition . )
Greg Slater , the Maryland State Highway Administration ’ s administrator , told me that transportation planners make a variety of recommendations for what belongs in the budget and at what phase .
One of the reasons the Hogan administration advanced the interchange , Slater said , was that the state had completed “ right-of-way ” —meaning it had purchased the land @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right-of-way and engineering were still in process when it was advanced , according to MDOT records .
( In December 2019 , Hogan nominated Slater to be Maryland ’ s new transportation secretary . )
Hogan himself has taken credit for the Brandywine interchange .
“ Our administration promised to fix Maryland ’ s crumbling roads and bridges , as well [ as ] address the worst traffic in the nation , and with the MD 5 interchange project , we are doing exactly what we said we would do , ” the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ This important project will help remove a major bottleneck in Prince George ’ s County.
” Hogan awarded the contract to build the Brandywine interchange to Facchina Construction Company , according to records obtained by the Washington Monthly through Maryland ’ s Public Information Act .
Facchina donated to Hogan ’ s reelection campaign one year before receiving the contract .
The interchange is scheduled to be completed by the late spring of 2020 .
Experts I spoke with who reviewed Maryland ’ s ethics laws were alarmed by the Hogan administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ properties .
Richard Painter , a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota Law School and a former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush , said that Hogan should have been prohibited from participating in the decision .
“ The [ ethics law ] language suggests that he should recuse because the official or employee or qualifying relative—he himself—has an interest in the matter and he knows of the interest , ” Painter told me .
Hogan has a history of investing in the area surrounding the Brandywine project @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his administration , the government has also advanced a number of other improvements in the same vicinity , including the construction of embankments , exit ramps , and median piers ; pavement upgrades ; a new park-and-ride lot ; and a bridge .
At the same time , Hogan ’ s business has been increasing its portfolio near all of these improvements .
In early 2017 , HOGAN purchased a new parcel of land for $ 2.2 million near the interchange , where , according to a Maryland real-estate newsletter , it plans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical office space , and an assisted-living center .
Most recently , the company bought 14 additional parcels of land in Brandywine near the interchange for more than $ 1.2 million , according to public land records .
I asked Mike Sponseller , a HOGAN vice president , whether the interchange project contributed to the firm ’ s increased investment in the area .
“ Yeah , ” he said .
“ Infrastructural updates are incredibly important to facilitating new development .
Infrastructure contributes to land value , contributes to access , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only place where Hogan has advanced construction projects near his existing property interests .
On November 12 , 2014 , just eight days after his election , Hogan ’ s company bought a parcel of land from Maryland ’ s State Highway Administration in Severn , Maryland , for $ 400,000 .
The sale was conducted through a public auction , and only one bid was made : by Timothy Hogan .
In November 2014 , HOGAN created a new LLC called the Villas at Severn Crest .
Since Larry Hogan took office @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a number of transportation projects that could boost the value of that property , including intersection improvements and road resurfacing less than a mile away , which started in 2018 .
In addition to his Brandywine and Severn properties , HOGAN chartered a company in West Hyattsville in early March 2015 that bought a parcel of land a half mile off Queens Chapel Road .
The company is turning the parcel into a townhouse development .
In his 2017 transportation budget , Hogan put $ 23.5 million in road and crosswalk improvements on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than a mile from the property .
( Previously , this project had been in a planning phase . )
Lawmakers said they were not told at the time that he owned a property near the road improvements .
Larry Hogan , 63 , has been steeped in politics since childhood .
His father , Lawrence Hogan Sr. , won a seat in Congress when his son was 12 , and he gained fame as the first Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee to call for Richard Nixon ’ s impeachment .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ office himself .
Throughout the 1980s and ’ 90s , Hogan Jr. tried unsuccessfully to win a seat in Congress .
Instead of going to Capitol Hill , he went into real estate .
In 1985 , he founded HOGAN , his real-estate firm .
He wasn ’ t always successful .
Hogan filed for bankruptcy in 1994 when he couldn ’ t pay back multiple longtime lenders who called in their loans , and he was forced to liquidate his assets , including by selling his house for $ 750,000 .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brother joined the firm in 1999 .
In 2003 , Hogan got his first political break when Bob Ehrlich was elected governor , the first Republican to win in Maryland since Spiro Agnew .
Ehrlich appointed Hogan to a cabinet post in charge of filling jobs at Maryland state agencies , boards , and commissions .
After Ehrlich lost his reelection campaign to Martin O ’ Malley four years later , Hogan founded a political advocacy group , Change Maryland , which tallied O ’ Malley ’ s tax increases .
That became @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gubernatorial bid , which he won as part of a wave election that saw GOP victories all across the country .
Hogan finally got his chance to serve in elected office .
But Hogan ’ s election came with an immediate complication : What would he do with his real-estate business ?
Maryland ethics law bans officials or employees from making decisions on matters in which they have an economic interest .
But the law states that this prohibition does “ not apply if participation is allowed as to officials and employees subject @ @ @ @ @ @ @ State ] Ethics Commission.
” Hogan reached out to the ethics commission for advice .
One day after Hogan was inaugurated , on January 22 , 2015 , Maryland State Ethics Commission executive director Michael Lord wrote back with guidance .
His letter was designed to “ serve as an interim approach pending the full resolution of possible financial interest issues.
” Those issues , Lord said , could take “ a number of months ” to fully sort out .
In the guidelines Lord sent to Hogan , he told the governor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prohibition on making decisions that impacted his financial interests .
Lord wrote : Later in the letter , Lord wrote , “ The Commission has determined that participation includes supervision of others involved in a matter.
” In December 2015 , Hogan entered into a trust agreement that he asserted would prevent conflicts of interest .
On April 15 , 2016 , the trust was approved by the state ethics commission .
Between Hogan ’ s inauguration and the trust agreement ’ s approval , the governor submitted two transportation budgets—including the one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least seven newly created real-estate LLCs .
In other words , Hogan ’ s real-estate business was growing just as he was supposed to be separating himself from it .
In an email , Ricci said that given the length of time it took the commission to deliberate , much of this was both unavoidable and acceptable .
“ Since before being sworn into office , the governor ’ s representatives requested and received guidance from the Ethics Commission to ensure full compliance with the Public Ethics Law , ” he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sent to Hogan the day after his inauguration , in which the chairman stated that the commission “ appreciates the efforts that have been made to date by the Governor and his team to address the complicated issues involving his private business interests and his sincere desire to ensure compliance with the Ethics law.
” But even after Hogan began talks with the ethics commission , there were signs that he had not made a clear break from his business .
In February 2015 , while serving as governor , Hogan himself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a press release issued by his private company .
His administration began construction on projects near both the Villas at Severn Crest and the Riverfront at West Hyattsville after his trust went into place .
Hogan refused multiple requests to be interviewed .
“ Washington Monthly is making absolutely baseless allegations that the state ’ s major media outlets have already thoroughly vetted and rejected , ” Ricci wrote in an emailed statement .
“ With the advice and agreement of the Ethics Commission , the governor has gone above and beyond @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There are several different ways by which Hogan could have separated himself from his business .
Craig Holman , a government-affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen , a nonprofit good-government group , said that the most robust way would be to divest entirely .
It ’ s an approach that some Democrats in the Maryland legislature have also endorsed .
“ When you have a business owner who takes the reins of government , that business owner needs to remember that he is no longer simply beholden to his business interest , ” said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ He is beholden to the interests of the people of the state .
If those business interests are not something that you are willing to give up , then you frankly don ’ t deserve to be in that position.
” Some members of the conservative movement disagree .
Kendra Arnold , the head of the Foundation for Accountability and Public Trust , an organization once led by former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker , told The Baltimore Sun in 2018 that it was “ not realistic ” for public officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone divest themselves of every interest they have is not a reasonable requirement , ” she said .
Reformers are not asking for politicians to divest from every stock or mutual fund , of course .
And Hogan ’ s real-estate empire—which has properties across the state he governs—is not a typical business .
But experts like Holman argue that when politicians do maintain their business interests while in office , they should have to place them into a blind trust , managed by an independent entity with which they have no prior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for example , he put his peanut farm into a blind trust .
But Hogan ’ s trust is not blind .
The ethics commission granted the governor a “ financial-interest exemption , ” which allows him to continue to own real-estate projects and to be apprised of his company ’ s business dealings , as well as how much money he ’ s making .
In a letter to Lord , Hogan wrote that the arrangement “ will not prevent me from requesting or receiving information about the status of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ status of its current investments and , [ sic ] the identity of the investors and the locations of real property in which the Hogan Companies have an investment.
” Ricci said Hogan opted for this type of arrangement because a “ blind trust is generally reserved for passive investments .
Given that the trust represents an active and ongoing business , it is sensible to have it managed by experts in the field.
” Ricci said that , as part of the deal , the governor promised to not participate in matters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advance consultation or solicitation of advice with respect to the business activities of the trust , ” Ricci told me .
“ In short , this trust goes further than current Maryland law.
” But the trustees Hogan chose to manage his holdings are not just experts in the real-estate field—they are his previous business associates : Victor White , the chief operating officer of HOGAN ; Jacob Ermer , the executive vice president of HOGAN ; and David Weiss , a former broker at HOGAN .
According to public records , all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ His brother , Timothy , is in charge of his company .
As governor , Hogan has maintained a close relationship with all four of these individuals .
He had at least eight meetings with them between 2015 and 2018 , according to his meeting calendar , obtained by the Washington Monthly through a Public Information Act request .
Kathleen Clark , a government ethics professor at the Washington University in St. Louis ’ s School of Law , said it was “ misleading ” to even call the arrangement a trust because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investments and assets .
“ He owns it , he will benefit from it , he is not shielded from knowledge of what the holdings are , ” she said .
This faulty arrangement is , in part , the responsibility of the Maryland State Ethics Commission , which granted Hogan the financial-interest exemption and signed off on the trust .
The commission ’ s decision speaks to the overall weakness of Maryland ’ s ethics laws .
The Center for Public Integrity , in its 2015 State Integrity Report , the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a D overall for integrity—and an F for ethics enforcement .
( Maryland passed a law in 2017 that strengthened certain provisions in the state ’ s public ethics law—mainly toughening the regulations governing when and how former legislators can become lobbyists . )
Still , the ethics commission made it clear that financial-interest exceptions do not allow officials to participate in government decisions that impact their outside business .
“ Even when the Commission grants an exception or exemption , all of the other provisions of the Ethics Law continue to apply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ August 2019 memo to state workers .
“ For example , the employee or an official may not participate in any matters on behalf of the State relating to the employee ’ s secondary employer or entity where the ownership interest lies even if the Commission grants an exemption or exception.
” In its specific guidance to Hogan , the commission stated that Hogan could , and should , identify “ a specific person within the Governor ’ s Office to act in his place on any such matters that come to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial interest in his businesses.
” Yet when I asked Ricci , Hogan ’ s spokesperson , if the governor had ever recused himself from a decision in his transportation budget that could impact his properties , he was clear that Hogan had not .
“ The answer is no , ” Ricci said .
“ The governor does not make decisions on individual projects , so he has no decisions to recuse himself from.
” The ethics commission did indicate that it ’ s these kinds of discrete decisions Hogan should avoid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it wrote that the participation restrictions refer to specific matters , “ not to broad policy matters where his businesses are among a small number directly affected.
” But senior Maryland officials , past and present , said the governor routinely makes specific calls on infrastructure projects and , indeed , is the official responsible for making such calls .
Maryland law allows state officials or employees to participate in decisions from which they would otherwise be barred , as long as they are the only person authorized to make those decisions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when officials are exempted from participation prohibitions by necessity , they must publicly disclose their conflict of interest .
Multiple legislators said Hogan did not disclose real-estate interests before they voted on his proposed transportation projects .
Last October , Hogan endorsed the Ukraine-related impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump .
“ I think we do need an inquiry because we have to get to the bottom of it , ” he said in a televised interview .
“ I don ’ t see any other way to get to the facts.
” But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ silent over the president ’ s alleged violations of the Emoluments Clause .
In fact , in 2018 , he withheld $ 1 million from the Maryland attorney general ’ s office to stop a series of lawsuits against Trump , the most prominent of which alleged that the president was using his position to bolster his real-estate empire ’ s profits .
The governor justified his decision on fiscal grounds .
“ The administration takes its responsibility to find efficiency and savings in the state budget extremely seriously , ” Doug Mayer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time , told The Baltimore Sun .
“ This is a perfect example of that .
”

For years, Never Trump Republicans have courted Larry Hogan to run for president. It’s easy to see why. He’s won two gubernatorial elections in Maryland, where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one; he’s currently one of the most popular governors in America; and he’s widely viewed as a moderate who’s willing to reach across the aisle. The late-night talk-show host Seth Meyers recently described him as “a Republican who believes in climate change.” In June, he’s publishing a memoir—a move that suggests he’s laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential bid. Last spring, he launched a national advocacy group, An America United, designed to break partisan gridlock and “bring people together to advance bold, common-sense solutions for all Americans.” Simply put, everything about Larry Hogan’s public image would lead you to believe he’s the opposite of Donald Trump.
But Hogan, it turns out, has more in common with Trump than his reputation suggests.
Both are real-estate executives who have refused to relinquish their private businesses while in office. Just as Trump maintained his ownership of the Trump Organization when he became president, Hogan maintained ownership of HOGAN, a multipurpose real-estate brokerage firm, when he became governor. Both have left close family members in charge of their businesses—Trump with his children; Hogan with his brother, Timothy—and created arrangements that allow them to be apprised of the company’s dealings. In other words, they have set up situations in which they can use their powerful government positions to increase their private profits.
As governor, one of Hogan’s signature policies has been to expand state spending on roads, highways, and bridges at the expense of mass transit. His most controversial policy to date was to cancel the Red Line—a planned $2.9 billion metro rail line through Baltimore, for which the state had already acquired land. In the process, Hogan gave up $900 million in federal aid from the Obama administration. As The Baltimore Sun put it, “Hogan freed up hundred [sic] of millions of dollars he plans to use to undertake a significant shift in the state’s transportation priorities from public transit to road projects.”
Hogan has advanced a number of major state transportation projects that are near properties his company owns, a development that can boost the value of those properties. Before canceling the Red Line, he approved construction of an interchange down the road from a parcel of land his company controlled. Later, he approved millions of dollars in road and sidewalk improvements near property he had bought approximately two years earlier and was turning into a housing development.
Maryland law says that an official may not partake in a decision if the official or a qualifying relative—defined as a parent, spouse, child, or sibling—has an economic interest in the matter and the official or employee knows of the interest. These decisions “certainly seem to implicate the statute,” said Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a former ethics adviser for the International Monetary Fund. “It looks like there’s credible evidence of a violation.”
Hogan’s real-estate business has only grown while he has been in office. In 2014, the year before he became governor, his company had ownership in 30 real-estate limited-liability companies, or LLCs, according to his financial-disclosure forms. Now, he has 43. HOGAN is currently selling or leasing more than 20 properties throughout the state, according to its website, and has completed other real-estate deals over the past five years.
But Hogan has not revealed payments he has received from specific real-estate transactions while in office. “He’s getting paid by developers all across the state—who he’s in charge of regulating in one way or another—and the public has no idea who they are,” said Democrat John Willis, a former Maryland secretary of state and now a University of Baltimore politics professor and a historian of Maryland politics and government.
Hogan’s income has far exceeded his official yearly government salary of roughly $180,000. From 2015 to 2018, his first three years as governor, he made a total of roughly $2.4 million, according to his tax returns for those years, which he released during his 2018 reelection campaign. But he has refused to release his returns for the years before he became governor, much like Donald Trump, giving the public no way to compare his earnings before and after he ascended to Annapolis. In addition, the tax returns Hogan has released do not include attached statements detailing the sources of his private income, effectively hiding what entities were paying him.
The amount he’s made while in office is unprecedented. According to Willis, Hogan has made more money as governor than any other governor in the history of the state— and is the only one to have made millions of dollars while in office.
In February 2018, Maryland Matters, a state-based politics and policy website, reported that Hogan held ownership in a company called Brandywine Crossing Realty Partners LLC. The company was chartered on March 9, 2015, and it became a controlling partner for a parcel of land behind the Brandywine Crossing Shopping Center in Prince George’s County. The land was just down the road from a major state transportation project: a new highway interchange.
As Maryland Matters reported, development funding for this project was first allocated by Hogan’s predecessor, Democrat Martin O’Malley, and it had been studied by state transportation planners since 1984. “There is no indication that the governor deliberately took an official action to benefit himself financially,” the site wrote.
But there’s more to the story—and reason for greater concern.
Several months before the governor’s company took control of the Brandywine land parcel, Hogan’s administration—not O’Malley’s—earmarked $58 million to build this interchange. In April 2015, the general assembly approved the project. Hogan did not notify legislators that he had property interests nearby before the vote.
Maryland law says that an official may not partake in a decision if the official or a qualifying relative—defined as a parent, spouse, child, or sibling—has an economic interest in the matter. Hogans’s real-estate firm is run by his brother.
The allocation for the interchange was made as part of Maryland’s annual transportation budget process. Each September, the Maryland governor releases a draft six-year transportation budget. It includes transit projects that the government is considering or actively building, along with the phase that each is in. The following January, the governor releases a finalized version. The legislature then takes several months to deliberate on the budget—for which the gubernatorial staff lobbies—before voting on it. Lawmakers can vote down individual projects but can’t add any.
In O’Malley’s final 2014–19 transportation budget, the Brandywine project was in a planning phase of development. When O’Malley released Maryland’s draft 2015–20 transportation budget, it was not mentioned. But when Hogan released the finalized 2015–20 budget five months later, he moved the overpass into construction and added $58 million in new funding. A source familiar with the situation said that the decision to expedite the project was made during meetings that included the governor, which took place in November and December 2014, after Hogan was elected but before he was sworn in. Hogan didn’t become a controlling partner for the Brandywine property until the following March, but it’s not clear when his negotiations to gain a stake in the property began. Real-estate executives I spoke to who are familiar with the process, and who have worked with HOGAN in the past, said these deals typically take months (and in some cases years) to complete.
Hogan’s communications director, Michael Ricci, said that advancing the Brandywine project had nothing to do with Hogan. “The governor has never made a decision on an individual project,” he said.
But a Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) official familiar with the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that wasn’t true. Ricci’s claim, he added, “doesn’t pass the laugh test.” The governor, at the very least, has signed off on every decision. “The [transportation] secretary can propose it, but it’s the governor’s call,” the official said.
Maryland’s constitution declares that the governor is responsible for sending the budget to the legislature “in such form and detail as he shall determine.” Warren Deschenaux, who directed Annapolis’s nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services for decades, said Maryland’s transportation-infrastructure process is one of the most executive driven in the nation. He called Hogan’s claim that he hasn’t made any decisions in his transportation budget a “ridiculous assertion.”
Former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, a Democrat, added that the governor is the sole official responsible for moving transportation projects into construction: “Those decisions are going to have to be the governor’s decision and not someone in government bureaucracy.”
Multiple legislators said they were not informed of the governor’s nearby real-estate interests before voting on his transportation budget. “I certainly had none of this information when working on the budget committees or in discussions,” said Bill Ferguson, a Democratic Maryland state senator, when we spoke in September. (In October, Ferguson was selected to become the Maryland Senate’s next president.) “Had I known this information, I think there would have been much more targeted and purposeful questions about the necessity of projects that appear to have a financial benefit to the governor.” (Hogan listed his holdings in real-estate LLCs in his submission to the Maryland State Ethics Commission, filed 17 days after the legislature approved his first budget, but he did not identify specific properties, let alone the dates of acquisition.)
Greg Slater, the Maryland State Highway Administration’s administrator, told me that transportation planners make a variety of recommendations for what belongs in the budget and at what phase. One of the reasons the Hogan administration advanced the interchange, Slater said, was that the state had completed “right-of-way”—meaning it had purchased the land needed to construct the project. But right-of-way and engineering were still in process when it was advanced, according to MDOT records. (In December 2019, Hogan nominated Slater to be Maryland’s new transportation secretary.)
Hogan himself has taken credit for the Brandywine interchange. “Our administration promised to fix Maryland’s crumbling roads and bridges, as well [as] address the worst traffic in the nation, and with the MD 5 interchange project, we are doing exactly what we said we would do,” the governor said in a press release. “This important project will help remove a major bottleneck in Prince George’s County.”
Hogan awarded the contract to build the Brandywine interchange to Facchina Construction Company, according to records obtained by the Washington Monthly through Maryland’s Public Information Act. Facchina donated to Hogan’s reelection campaign one year before receiving the contract. The interchange is scheduled to be completed by the late spring of 2020.
Experts I spoke with who reviewed Maryland’s ethics laws were alarmed by the Hogan administration’s decisions around Brandywine and other properties. Richard Painter, a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota Law School and a former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said that Hogan should have been prohibited from participating in the decision. “The [ethics law] language suggests that he should recuse because the official or employee or qualifying relative—he himself—has an interest in the matter and he knows of the interest,” Painter told me.
Hogan has a history of investing in the area surrounding the Brandywine project that dates back to 2003. Under his administration, the government has also advanced a number of other improvements in the same vicinity, including the construction of embankments, exit ramps, and median piers; pavement upgrades; a new park-and-ride lot; and a bridge.
At the same time, Hogan’s business has been increasing its portfolio near all of these improvements. In early 2017, HOGAN purchased a new parcel of land for $2.2 million near the interchange, where, according to a Maryland real-estate newsletter, it plans to build townhouses, apartments, a medical office space, and an assisted-living center. Most recently, the company bought 14 additional parcels of land in Brandywine near the interchange for more than $1.2 million, according to public land records.
I asked Mike Sponseller, a HOGAN vice president, whether the interchange project contributed to the firm’s increased investment in the area. “Yeah,” he said. “Infrastructural updates are incredibly important to facilitating new development. Infrastructure contributes to land value, contributes to access, of course.”
Brandywine isn’t the only place where Hogan has advanced construction projects near his existing property interests. On November 12, 2014, just eight days after his election, Hogan’s company bought a parcel of land from Maryland’s State Highway Administration in Severn, Maryland, for $400,000. The sale was conducted through a public auction, and only one bid was made: by Timothy Hogan. In November 2014, HOGAN created a new LLC called the Villas at Severn Crest. Since Larry Hogan took office, the State Highway Administration has begun a number of transportation projects that could boost the value of that property, including intersection improvements and road resurfacing less than a mile away, which started in 2018.
In addition to his Brandywine and Severn properties, HOGAN chartered a company in West Hyattsville in early March 2015 that bought a parcel of land a half mile off Queens Chapel Road. The company is turning the parcel into a townhouse development. In his 2017 transportation budget, Hogan put $23.5 million in road and crosswalk improvements on Queens Chapel Road into construction, less than a mile from the property. (Previously, this project had been in a planning phase.) Lawmakers said they were not told at the time that he owned a property near the road improvements.
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Larry Hogan, 63, has been steeped in politics since childhood. His father, Lawrence Hogan Sr., won a seat in Congress when his son was 12, and he gained fame as the first Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee to call for Richard Nixon’s impeachment. The younger Hogan nurtured dreams of holding office himself. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Hogan Jr. tried unsuccessfully to win a seat in Congress.
Instead of going to Capitol Hill, he went into real estate. In 1985, he founded HOGAN, his real-estate firm. He wasn’t always successful. Hogan filed for bankruptcy in 1994 when he couldn’t pay back multiple longtime lenders who called in their loans, and he was forced to liquidate his assets, including by selling his house for $750,000. He later rebuilt his business, and his brother joined the firm in 1999.
In 2003, Hogan got his first political break when Bob Ehrlich was elected governor, the first Republican to win in Maryland since Spiro Agnew. Ehrlich appointed Hogan to a cabinet post in charge of filling jobs at Maryland state agencies, boards, and commissions. After Ehrlich lost his reelection campaign to Martin O’Malley four years later, Hogan founded a political advocacy group, Change Maryland, which tallied O’Malley’s tax increases. That became the springboard for Hogan’s 2014 gubernatorial bid, which he won as part of a wave election that saw GOP victories all across the country. Hogan finally got his chance to serve in elected office.
But Hogan’s election came with an immediate complication: What would he do with his real-estate business? Maryland ethics law bans officials or employees from making decisions on matters in which they have an economic interest. But the law states that this prohibition does “not apply if participation is allowed as to officials and employees subject to the authority of the [Maryland State] Ethics Commission.” Hogan reached out to the ethics commission for advice.
One day after Hogan was inaugurated, on January 22, 2015, Maryland State Ethics Commission executive director Michael Lord wrote back with guidance. His letter was designed to “serve as an interim approach pending the full resolution of possible financial interest issues.” Those issues, Lord said, could take “a number of months” to fully sort out.
In the guidelines Lord sent to Hogan, he told the governor to follow the ethics law’s prohibition on making decisions that impacted his financial interests. Lord wrote:
The Law provides that an official may not participate in a matter if (1) the official or a qualifying relative (defined as parent, spouse, child or sibling) has an interest in the matter, or (2) any of the following is a party to a matter: (i) a business entity in which the official has a direct financial interest; or (ii) a business entity, including a limited liability company, of which the official or a qualifying relative is an officer, director, trustee, partner or employee. Given these limitations, the Governor should not personally participate in any matter that may come before him or a state agency that involves [his] businesses, or any matter in which he or any of his qualifying relatives or a company that employs them have an interest.
Later in the letter, Lord wrote, “The Commission has determined that participation includes supervision of others involved in a matter.”
In December 2015, Hogan entered into a trust agreement that he asserted would prevent conflicts of interest. On April 15, 2016, the trust was approved by the state ethics commission. Between Hogan’s inauguration and the trust agreement’s approval, the governor submitted two transportation budgets—including the one advancing the Brandywine interchange—and gained ownership of at least seven newly created real-estate LLCs. In other words, Hogan’s real-estate business was growing just as he was supposed to be separating himself from it.
In an email, Ricci said that given the length of time it took the commission to deliberate, much of this was both unavoidable and acceptable. “Since before being sworn into office, the governor’s representatives requested and received guidance from the Ethics Commission to ensure full compliance with the Public Ethics Law,” he said. Ricci cited the letter from Lord, sent to Hogan the day after his inauguration, in which the chairman stated that the commission “appreciates the efforts that have been made to date by the Governor and his team to address the complicated issues involving his private business interests and his sincere desire to ensure compliance with the Ethics law.”
But even after Hogan began talks with the ethics commission, there were signs that he had not made a clear break from his business. In February 2015, while serving as governor, Hogan himself announced a $3.4 million real-estate transaction in a press release issued by his private company. His administration began construction on projects near both the Villas at Severn Crest and the Riverfront at West Hyattsville after his trust went into place.
Hogan refused multiple requests to be interviewed. “Washington Monthly is making absolutely baseless allegations that the state’s major media outlets have already thoroughly vetted and rejected,” Ricci wrote in an emailed statement. “With the advice and agreement of the Ethics Commission, the governor has gone above and beyond to comply with Public Ethics Law.”
There are several different ways by which Hogan could have separated himself from his business. Craig Holman, a government-affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonprofit good-government group, said that the most robust way would be to divest entirely. It’s an approach that some Democrats in the Maryland legislature have also endorsed. “When you have a business owner who takes the reins of government, that business owner needs to remember that he is no longer simply beholden to his business interest,” said Kirill Reznik, a Democratic state delegate. “He is beholden to the interests of the people of the state. If those business interests are not something that you are willing to give up, then you frankly don’t deserve to be in that position.”
Some members of the conservative movement disagree. Kendra Arnold, the head of the Foundation for Accountability and Public Trust, an organization once led by former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, told The Baltimore Sun in 2018 that it was “not realistic” for public officials to sell their businesses. “Having everyone divest themselves of every interest they have is not a reasonable requirement,” she said.
Reformers are not asking for politicians to divest from every stock or mutual fund, of course. And Hogan’s real-estate empire—which has properties across the state he governs—is not a typical business. But experts like Holman argue that when politicians do maintain their business interests while in office, they should have to place them into a blind trust, managed by an independent entity with which they have no prior relationship. When Jimmy Carter became president, for example, he put his peanut farm into a blind trust.
But Hogan’s trust is not blind. The ethics commission granted the governor a “financial-interest exemption,” which allows him to continue to own real-estate projects and to be apprised of his company’s business dealings, as well as how much money he’s making. In a letter to Lord, Hogan wrote that the arrangement “will not prevent me from requesting or receiving information about the status of the Hogan Companies . . . including the status of its current investments and, [sic] the identity of the investors and the locations of real property in which the Hogan Companies have an investment.”
Ricci said Hogan opted for this type of arrangement because a “blind trust is generally reserved for passive investments. Given that the trust represents an active and ongoing business, it is sensible to have it managed by experts in the field.” Ricci said that, as part of the deal, the governor promised to not participate in matters involving HOGAN. “The agreement prohibits advance consultation or solicitation of advice with respect to the business activities of the trust,” Ricci told me. “In short, this trust goes further than current Maryland law.”
But the trustees Hogan chose to manage his holdings are not just experts in the real-estate field—they are his previous business associates: Victor White, the chief operating officer of HOGAN; Jacob Ermer, the executive vice president of HOGAN; and David Weiss, a former broker at HOGAN. According to public records, all of them are Hogan campaign contributors. His brother, Timothy, is in charge of his company.
As governor, Hogan has maintained a close relationship with all four of these individuals. He had at least eight meetings with them between 2015 and 2018, according to his meeting calendar, obtained by the Washington Monthly through a Public Information Act request.
Hogan withheld $1 million from the Maryland attorney general to stop lawsuits against Trump, the most prominent of which alleged that the president was using his position to bolster his real-estate profits.
Kathleen Clark, a government ethics professor at the Washington University in St. Louis’s School of Law, said it was “misleading” to even call the arrangement a trust because Hogan is kept fully apprised of his investments and assets. “He owns it, he will benefit from it, he is not shielded from knowledge of what the holdings are,” she said.
This faulty arrangement is, in part, the responsibility of the Maryland State Ethics Commission, which granted Hogan the financial-interest exemption and signed off on the trust. The commission’s decision speaks to the overall weakness of Maryland’s ethics laws. The Center for Public Integrity, in its 2015 State Integrity Report, the most recent to date, gave the state a D overall for integrity—and an F for ethics enforcement. (Maryland passed a law in 2017 that strengthened certain provisions in the state’s public ethics law—mainly toughening the regulations governing when and how former legislators can become lobbyists.)
Still, the ethics commission made it clear that financial-interest exceptions do not allow officials to participate in government decisions that impact their outside business. “Even when the Commission grants an exception or exemption, all of the other provisions of the Ethics Law continue to apply,” the commission wrote in an August 2019 memo to state workers. “For example, the employee or an official may not participate in any matters on behalf of the State relating to the employee’s secondary employer or entity where the ownership interest lies even if the Commission grants an exemption or exception.”
In its specific guidance to Hogan, the commission stated that Hogan could, and should, identify “a specific person within the Governor’s Office to act in his place on any such matters that come to the Office while he continues to retain his financial interest in his businesses.” Yet when I asked Ricci, Hogan’s spokesperson, if the governor had ever recused himself from a decision in his transportation budget that could impact his properties, he was clear that Hogan had not. “The answer is no,” Ricci said. “The governor does not make decisions on individual projects, so he has no decisions to recuse himself from.”
The ethics commission did indicate that it’s these kinds of discrete decisions Hogan should avoid making. In its guidance to Hogan, it wrote that the participation restrictions refer to specific matters, “not to broad policy matters where his businesses are among a small number directly affected.” But senior Maryland officials, past and present, said the governor routinely makes specific calls on infrastructure projects and, indeed, is the official responsible for making such calls.
Maryland law allows state officials or employees to participate in decisions from which they would otherwise be barred, as long as they are the only person authorized to make those decisions. But the law also states that when officials are exempted from participation prohibitions by necessity, they must publicly disclose their conflict of interest. Multiple legislators said Hogan did not disclose real-estate interests before they voted on his proposed transportation projects.
Last October, Hogan endorsed the Ukraine-related impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. “I think we do need an inquiry because we have to get to the bottom of it,” he said in a televised interview. “I don’t see any other way to get to the facts.”
But Hogan has been, at best, silent over the president’s alleged violations of the Emoluments Clause. In fact, in 2018, he withheld $1 million from the Maryland attorney general’s office to stop a series of lawsuits against Trump, the most prominent of which alleged that the president was using his position to bolster his real-estate empire’s profits.
The governor justified his decision on fiscal grounds. “The administration takes its responsibility to find efficiency and savings in the state budget extremely seriously,” Doug Mayer, a spokesperson for Hogan at the time, told The Baltimore Sun. “This is a perfect example of that.”


washingtonmonthly--2020-01-13--The Education Master’s Degree Scam

The Education Master’s Degree Scam

David Firestone , a special ed teacher in New York City , is in his final semester of a master ’ s program at the Hunter College School of Education .
Yet he still feels like he hasn ’ t learned one of the core skills of teaching .
“ No one has ever bothered to teach us how to write a real lesson plan , ” he told me in November .
“ They just care that we know how to write edTPA lesson plans.
” He was referring to the test you ’ re required to pass in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a teacher .
A real-world lesson plan is usually half a page , maybe a little more .
What the program has instead drilled into him is how to write the kind of document he will submit to get his teaching license : a super-detailed , eight-page plan , essentially a script of everything he ’ d say in a class .
As a full-time teacher of visually impaired students and a graduate student on the side , Firestone has a finely calibrated sense of time—how to divvy it up , maximize it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ house in central Brooklyn at seven to get to school in south Brooklyn by eight , teaches a full day of classes , and finishes just before three .
Then he spends an hour and 20 minutes trekking to the Upper East Side of Manhattan to take grad school classes , which can run until 9:40 p.m .
He often doesn ’ t get home until after 11 .
That doesn ’ t leave a lot of time for eight-page lesson plans .
Frequently he writes his on the subway .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as “ brutal ” and “ God awful.
” So why do it ?
Because he has to .
Right now , one of the most common ways that school districts attempt to increase teacher quality is through master ’ s degrees .
Some states , like New York , Maryland , and Connecticut , require that teachers get master ’ s degrees in order to keep teaching .
Far more states encourage teachers to get them by tying them to pay raises .
It makes sense for states and school districts to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There are many factors schools can ’ t control , such as family income , parents ’ level of education , and so on .
But out of the factors they can influence , like class size or access to technology , one has a far greater impact on student achievement than all the rest : teacher quality .
Research shows that having a great teacher rather than an average one makes as much as a half year ’ s difference in learning growth .
The problem is that education master ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better teachers .
While programs vary greatly , and some stand above the rest , the teachers I interviewed told me that they had spent too much time on theory and not enough on practical teaching skills ; professors were too far removed from the classroom and using out-of-date pedagogy ; and many programs simply weren ’ t rigorous .
Decades of research back up their critiques .
“ When you talk to someone who is not in the weeds of ed research , they would be shocked that more education wouldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Dan Goldhaber , who directs the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington .
But that ’ s what the data shows .
Students whose teachers have a master ’ s degree don ’ t perform better on standardized tests—an incomplete but meaningful metric—than students whose teachers have just a bachelor ’ s degree .
Some teachers get a master ’ s because they want to .
But many do it because their district requires them to , or because they aren ’ t being paid much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get a raise .
Some teachers bluntly told me their degrees were a waste of time—a surprising admission given the strong human impulse to attribute value to whatever you ’ ve already spent a lot of money on .
In districts across the country , teachers aren ’ t paid enough .
To attract talented , devoted people to the profession—and so that teachers don ’ t need second and third jobs—we need to pay them more .
What doesn ’ t make sense is tying increased teacher pay to cumbersome , expensive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ improve teacher quality .
And it ’ s clear that there ’ s a better way .
American teachers weren ’ t paid salaries at all well into the 19th century .
Schools were largely community organized , and teachers ’ compensation mostly consisted of free room and board .
By the early 20th century , with the cash economy in full swing and K–8 education growing rapidly , teaching had become more professionalized—but teacher pay reflected the intense racial and gender inequities of the time .
In part to confront that unfairness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on objective criteria like training and years of experience .
Scholars disagree on when exactly the master ’ s pay bump started , but by the 1960s it had become widespread .
This arrangement has proven durable .
It makes budgeting more predictable for school districts .
It suits the needs of teachers ’ unions , who want to increase benefits that are equally accessible to all their members and tend to prefer linking pay to seniority rather than performance .
And , not incidentally , it ensures a steady stream of tuition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
What the system does not do , however , is improve teacher quality .
That ’ s not exactly what Arthur Levine expected to find when he set out to study the field of teacher education in the early 2000s .
At the time , he was the president of Columbia University ’ s Teachers College , one of the most prestigious programs of its kind in the country .
Education schools were coming under criticism , but Levine assumed that his research project would prove their value .
He and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 28 case studies of education programs , resulting in a more than 100-page report .
“ When I started the study , what I suspected was that the criticism was overstated , ” he told me recently .
He was wrong .
“ Things were so much worse than I had imagined , ” he said .
“ It was shocking.
” While there were some standout programs , on the whole he found a system rife with low selectivity , low rigor , and low graduation standards .
Students criticized faculty for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to dated material and a lack of practical tips .
Worst of all were school- administration programs , which many teachers enroll in with an eye toward career advancement , and of which Levine concluded , “ The majority of programs range from inadequate to appalling.
” Subsequent studies have backed up Levine ’ s research , showing that teachers with master ’ s degrees aren ’ t any better , on average , at educating students .
( A notable exception , according to recent research , is that students had higher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s degrees in math or science . )
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education , which represents hundreds of colleges and universities that have education programs , cautions that much of this research relies narrowly on student performance on tests , and doesn ’ t capture other skills we expect teachers to impart .
But the consensus among people who have studied the question is overwhelming .
“ Most of the research is that there ’ s either no statistically significant difference , or small significant differences , in teachers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Thomas Kane , an economist and professor of education at Harvard .
Matthew Chingos , an education-policy expert at the Urban Institute , has described it as “ one of the most consistent findings in education research.
” Kate Walsh , president of the National Council on Teacher Quality , put it more bluntly : “ It ’ s as conclusive as research that finds smoking causes lung cancer .
It ’ s as conclusive as the research on climate change.
” It cuts against logic .
How could several years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thousands of dollars spent on making teachers better not make better teachers ?
One explanation I heard again and again was that programs spend too much time on theory and not enough on practice .
“ Education programs in general are abstract , and they don ’ t really give teachers opportunities with real-world practical strategies which you can utilize in classrooms , ” said Jessica Chirico , a social-studies teacher at a New York City charter school , who , like David Firestone , did her master ’ s at Hunter College @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Piaget is a great guy , ” she said , referencing two famous pedagogical theorists .
“ But at the end of the day , the kid is throwing paper balls at his friend in the classroom , Johnny is not listening—how is that going to help you ?
” Firestone found that many of his professors were professional academics who hadn ’ t worked in a school classroom for decades , or at all .
“ There ’ s nothing wrong with leaving the classroom to be an academic , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find that people who are in the classroom every single day think more practically than the academics.
” Other teachers noted that their professors weren ’ t using up-to-date pedagogical practices themselves .
Martin Goldman-Kirst , a math teacher at Cleveland High School in Washington State , recalled the irony of being lectured on not lecturing his students .
“ I found that really funny , ” he said .
“ It would have been funnier had I not been so bored.
” When programs do try to deliver hands-on classroom experiences , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the degree—but it can also fall flat .
Firestone was required to spend a summer observing and learning from full-time teachers leading summer school classes .
But the teachers , he said , were hardly models to emulate .
They were mostly close to retirement or brand new , and were teaching summer classes because they needed the money or didn ’ t yet have a full-time job .
Sometimes Firestone found himself offering to take over a lesson .
To the extent that programs are challenging , most teachers I spoke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ schedule , rather than the rigor of the content .
This leads to perverse incentives .
The salary bump for getting a master ’ s degree is given in exchange for the signed and stamped diploma , whether or not teaching improves .
Teachers , most of whom already have tightly packed schedules , often seek the least time-consuming programs .
Schools of education , in turn , compete for customers by making their programs less demanding .
In many districts , there are few restrictions on the types of degrees that qualify @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like school administration , unrelated to what they teach .
It might qualify them for a more lucrative leadership position down the line , but it won ’ t make them a better math , Spanish , or history teacher now .
“ You could get a master ’ s degree from a topflight master ’ s of education program , or you could go to a fly-by-night program , and typically those two would be treated the same [ by the school district ] , ” said Dan Goldhaber , the researcher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lozito , a social-studies teacher who works with Chirico , would have liked to get an advanced degree in history .
But when she compared syllabi , she quickly realized that a master ’ s in education would entail less reading and writing , and would cover material she was already familiar with from her undergrad courses .
Her schedule couldn ’ t bear the workload of the history degree , so she chose a master ’ s in adolescent education offered online through Mercy College .
The homework mostly entailed posting in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It was a lot of “ ‘ Yeah , I agree with so-and-so ’ s point , ’ ” she said , and it got tedious .
“ I will be 100 percent honest , I did not notice any added value with this degree , ” she told me .
“ With the exception of a couple of things I gleaned from the texts , I feel like if I had never gotten it , I ’ d be teaching the same way.
” Nixing the automatic master ’ s pay bump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ likely face intense resistance from teachers ’ unions .
It would also draw quiet resistance from a less obvious source : the universities awarding degrees .
Data from the Department of Education shows that education master ’ s degrees are the second most commonly awarded master ’ s degrees in the country , after MBAs .
That makes them an important and reliable source of tuition revenue—as long as teachers feel the need to get them .
Marguerite Roza , an education-finance expert , got an inkling of that fact when she published @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the “ master ’ s bump.
” The money going toward degree-based pay raises—nearly $ 15 billion nationwide in the 2007–08 school year—was a waste , she argued .
She authored that paper from her perch at the time at the University of Washington ’ s College of Education—the very sort of institution that was benefitting from the arrangement .
The paper had been out for less than a week , Roza said , when she heard from the dean of the college , Patricia Wasley .
Wasley told Roza she had been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ education programs across the country , according to Roza .
They were asking that she censure Roza or even make her retract the paper .
Wasley declined .
“ The college of ed , for sure , earned a lot of their money through this whole handshake relationship with the school districts , ” Roza told me .
“ It makes colleges of education extremely resistant to any real change.
” That doesn ’ t make real change impossible , however—in fact , some states have already done it .
In 2013 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ master ’ s degrees in part because of the research finding their limited impact on student achievement , and in part because of budget squeezes from the Great Recession .
But wait : Does this mean paying teachers less ?
As teacher strikes have swept across the country , the public has been reminded that in many places , teachers make so little that some end up taking second jobs , or even , in extreme cases , selling their plasma .
In most places , we should be paying teachers more , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money should still go to teachers—it just shouldn ’ t be tied to an expensive , time-consuming degree with no tangible benefit .
Simply giving all teachers higher salaries , says Roza , would be better than having teachers go into debt to get degrees .
Some districts are proving that it ’ s possible to do one better .
Over the past decade , DC Public Schools ( DCPS ) , long seen as one of the worst school systems in the nation , has clawed its way up the ranks of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In 2019 , only D.C. and one state ( Mississippi ) saw improvement across most measures on an important national test of fourth and eight graders .
Some of those gains are due to demographic changes , but research shows that demographic change isn ’ t the whole story .
The district also undertook a series of major but controversial reforms aimed at improving the quality of the teacher workforce .
As part of the teacher effort , it abandoned the traditional practice of paying teachers strictly on the basis of years of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a new evaluation system , combining principal evaluations throughout the year with student test scores and other measures .
High marks meant that a teacher would get a substantial bonus and , in some cases , permanent bumps up the pay scale .
The small percentage of teachers rated “ ineffective ” were dismissed .
In addition to shifting to a performance-based pay system , the district also beefed up mentoring and career development , including by implementing a weekly coaching program .
Vast racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps among students remain , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surveyed their members , a majority said they felt that the evaluations were unfairly subjective .
But academic researchers found that , on average , low-performing teachers who leave the system are replaced by more effective ones .
And a recent Washington Post poll found that the share of Washingtonians who approve of the city ’ s schools ( including charters ) is at a record high , and up sharply from 2008 .
Not all school districts could easily replicate what DCPS has done .
Smaller districts , especially in rural areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so easily , and they may not have resources for a robust coaching system .
In other words , those districts will still have to rely on university programs to provide continuing education for their teachers .
The question is how to make those programs better .
When I put that question to experts , several suggested looking into Relay , an independent nonprofit grad school that focuses exclusively on teacher and school-leader education .
Initially incubated within Hunter College and accredited in 2011 , Relay was created to be a hyper-practical program @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first year , students work in classrooms full-time with mentor teachers , earning assistant-teacher salaries .
At the same time , they ’ re taking classes and being coached by professors—all of whom have been classroom teachers for years .
In their second year , Relay students lead classrooms , earn full salaries , and continue to take courses and receive feedback .
Student teachers submit video of themselves leading classes , which professors review and give them feedback on , like a football coach going over a game tape with players .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ has campuses in 19 cities .
It says it educates more than 4,000 student teachers .
The school ’ s impact on students hasn ’ t yet been evaluated by third-party researchers , but some early indicators are promising .
Relay had 18 first-year teachers working in DCPS in the 2018–19 school year who were assessed under the district ’ s evaluation system .
While it ’ s hard to draw conclusions from such a small sample , Relay says the share of its first-year teachers scoring in the top two brackets was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ novice teachers in the district .
Researchers will watch as Relay and other programs test out new strategies .
But there ’ s a larger , structural fix : decoupling master ’ s degrees from automatic raises .
Enrollment in education master ’ s programs would almost surely dip , at least initially , but those still choosing to enroll would become more demanding customers .
As Marguerite Roza and Patricia Wasley put it in a piece for Education Week responding to the backlash against Roza ’ s research , replacing the master @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ tip the scales to those programs that have redefined their offerings with a focus on achieving better results in the classroom.
” Figuring out how to actually make teachers more effective should be a national priority , Arthur Levine said .
“ The research makes clear that teacher quality is one of the best investments we could possibly make , ” he told me .
“ Our future depends upon the quality of our teaching force .
”

David Firestone, an associate special ed teacher in New York City, is in his final semester of a master’s program at the Hunter College School of Education. Yet he still feels like he hasn’t learned one of the core skills of teaching.
“No one has ever bothered to teach us how to write a real lesson plan,” he told me in November. “They just care that we know how to write edTPA lesson plans.” He was referring to the test you’re required to pass in New York State to become certified as a teacher. A real-world lesson plan is usually half a page, maybe a little more. What the program has instead drilled into him is how to write the kind of document he will submit to get his teaching license: a super-detailed, eight-page plan, essentially a script of everything he’d say in a class.
As a full-time associate special ed teacher and a graduate student on the side, Firestone has a finely calibrated sense of time—how to divvy it up, maximize it, save it. He leaves his house in central Brooklyn at seven to get to school in south Brooklyn by eight, teaches a full day of classes, and finishes just before three. Then he spends an hour and 20 minutes trekking to the Upper East Side of Manhattan to take grad school classes, which can run until 9:40 p.m. He often doesn’t get home until after 11. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for eight-page lesson plans. Frequently he writes his on the subway. It’s a schedule that he described alternately as “brutal” and “God awful.”
So why do it? Because he has to. Right now, one of the most common ways that school districts attempt to increase teacher quality is through master’s degrees. Some states, like New York, Maryland, and Connecticut, require that teachers get master’s degrees in order to keep teaching. Far more states encourage teachers to get them by tying them to pay raises.
It makes sense for states and school districts to look for ways to improve teacher quality. There are many factors schools can’t control, such as family income, parents’ level of education, and so on. But out of the factors they can influence, like class size or access to technology, one has a far greater impact on student achievement than all the rest: teacher quality. Research shows that having a great teacher rather than an average one makes as much as a half year’s difference in learning growth.
Some teachers bluntly told me their degrees were a waste of time—a surprising admission given the strong human impulse to attribute value to whatever you’ve already spent a lot of money on.
The problem is that education master’s programs generally don’t produce better teachers. While programs vary greatly, and some stand above the rest, the teachers I interviewed told me that they had spent too much time on theory and not enough on practical teaching skills; professors were too far removed from the classroom and using out-of-date pedagogy; and many programs simply weren’t rigorous. Decades of research back up their critiques.
“When you talk to someone who is not in the weeds of ed research, they would be shocked that more education wouldn’t make a teacher more productive,” said Dan Goldhaber, who directs the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington. But that’s what the data shows. Students whose teachers have a master’s degree don’t perform better on standardized tests—an incomplete but meaningful metric—than students whose teachers have just a bachelor’s degree.
Some teachers get a master’s because they want to. But many do it because their district requires them to, or because they aren’t being paid much and it’s a way to get a raise. Some teachers bluntly told me their degrees were a waste of time—a surprising admission given the strong human impulse to attribute value to whatever you’ve already spent a lot of money on.
In districts across the country, teachers aren’t paid enough. To attract talented, devoted people to the profession—and so that teachers don’t need second and third jobs—we need to pay them more. What doesn’t make sense is tying increased teacher pay to cumbersome, expensive degree programs that don’t actually improve teacher quality. And it’s clear that there’s a better way.
American teachers weren’t paid salaries at all well into the 19th century. Schools were largely community organized, and teachers’ compensation mostly consisted of free room and board. By the early 20th century, with the cash economy in full swing and K–8 education growing rapidly, teaching had become more professionalized—but teacher pay reflected the intense racial and gender inequities of the time. In part to confront that unfairness, districts began setting pay schedules based on objective criteria like training and years of experience. Scholars disagree on when exactly the master’s pay bump started, but by the 1960s it had become widespread.
This arrangement has proven durable. It makes budgeting more predictable for school districts. It suits the needs of teachers’ unions, who want to increase benefits that are equally accessible to all their members and tend to prefer linking pay to seniority rather than performance. And, not incidentally, it ensures a steady stream of tuition revenue to the universities offering the degrees.
What the system does not do, however, is improve teacher quality.
That’s not exactly what Arthur Levine expected to find when he set out to study the field of teacher education in the early 2000s. At the time, he was the president of Columbia University’s Teachers College, one of the most prestigious programs of its kind in the country. Education schools were coming under criticism, but Levine assumed that his research project would prove their value. He and his research team conducted four massive surveys and 28 case studies of education programs, resulting in a more than 100-page report.
“When I started the study, what I suspected was that the criticism was overstated,” he told me recently. He was wrong. “Things were so much worse than I had imagined,” he said. “It was shocking.” While there were some standout programs, on the whole he found a system rife with low selectivity, low rigor, and low graduation standards. Students criticized faculty for having limited classroom experience, which led to dated material and a lack of practical tips. Worst of all were school- administration programs, which many teachers enroll in with an eye toward career advancement, and of which Levine concluded, “The majority of programs range from inadequate to appalling.”
Subsequent studies have backed up Levine’s research, showing that teachers with master’s degrees aren’t any better, on average, at educating students. (A notable exception, according to recent research, is that students had higher math scores when their teachers had master’s degrees in math or science.) The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, which represents hundreds of colleges and universities that have education programs, cautions that much of this research relies narrowly on student performance on tests, and doesn’t capture other skills we expect teachers to impart. But the consensus among people who have studied the question is overwhelming.
“Most of the research is that there’s either no statistically significant difference, or small significant differences, in teachers with master’s degrees,” said Thomas Kane, an economist and professor of education at Harvard. Matthew Chingos, an education-policy expert at the Urban Institute, has described it as “one of the most consistent findings in education research.” Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, put it more bluntly: “It’s as conclusive as research that finds smoking causes lung cancer. It’s as conclusive as the research on climate change.”
It cuts against logic. How could several years, hundreds of hours, and tens of thousands of dollars spent on making teachers better not make better teachers?
One explanation I heard again and again was that programs spend too much time on theory and not enough on practice. “Education programs in general are abstract, and they don’t really give teachers opportunities with real-world practical strategies which you can utilize in classrooms,” said Jessica Chirico, a social-studies teacher at a New York City charter school, who, like David Firestone, did her master’s at Hunter College. “Vygotsky is a great guy, Piaget is a great guy,” she said, referencing two famous pedagogical theorists. “But at the end of the day, the kid is throwing paper balls at his friend in the classroom, Johnny is not listening—how is that going to help you?”
Firestone found that many of his professors were professional academics who hadn’t worked in a school classroom for decades, or at all. “There’s nothing wrong with leaving the classroom to be an academic,” he said. “But I just find that people who are in the classroom every single day think more practically than the academics.” Other teachers noted that their professors weren’t using up-to-date pedagogical practices themselves. Martin Goldman-Kirst, a math teacher at Cleveland High School in Washington State, recalled the irony of being lectured on not lecturing his students. “I found that really funny,” he said. “It would have been funnier had I not been so bored.”
When programs do try to deliver hands-on classroom experiences, it can be the most valuable part of the degree—but it can also fall flat. Firestone was required to spend a summer observing and learning from full-time teachers leading summer school classes. But the teachers, he said, were hardly models to emulate. They were mostly close to retirement or brand new, and were teaching summer classes because they needed the money or didn’t yet have a full-time job. Sometimes Firestone found himself offering to take over a lesson.
To the extent that programs are challenging, most teachers I spoke with pointed to the burden on their schedule, rather than the rigor of the content. This leads to perverse incentives. The salary bump for getting a master’s degree is given in exchange for the signed and stamped diploma, whether or not teaching improves. Teachers, most of whom already have tightly packed schedules, often seek the least time-consuming programs. Schools of education, in turn, compete for customers by making their programs less demanding. In many districts, there are few restrictions on the types of degrees that qualify, so often teachers choose subjects, like school administration, unrelated to what they teach. It might qualify them for a more lucrative leadership position down the line, but it won’t make them a better math, Spanish, or history teacher now. “You could get a master’s degree from a topflight master’s of education program, or you could go to a fly-by-night program, and typically those two would be treated the same [by the school district],” said Dan Goldhaber, the researcher at the University of Washington.
Teachers, most of whom already have tightly packed schedules, often seek the least time-consuming programs. Schools of education, in turn, compete for customers by making their programs less demanding.
Laura Lozito, a social-studies teacher who works with Chirico, would have liked to get an advanced degree in history. But when she compared syllabi, she quickly realized that a master’s in education would entail less reading and writing, and would cover material she was already familiar with from her undergrad courses. Her schedule couldn’t bear the workload of the history degree, so she chose a master’s in adolescent education offered online through Mercy College. The homework mostly entailed posting in an online forum for her class. It was a lot of “ ‘Yeah, I agree with so-and-so’s point,’ ” she said, and it got tedious. “I will be 100 percent honest, I did not notice any added value with this degree,” she told me. “With the exception of a couple of things I gleaned from the texts, I feel like if I had never gotten it, I’d be teaching the same way.”
Nixing the automatic master’s pay bump, which many experts advocate, would likely face intense resistance from teachers’ unions. It would also draw quiet resistance from a less obvious source: the universities awarding degrees. Data from the Department of Education shows that education master’s degrees are the second most commonly awarded master’s degrees in the country, after MBAs. That makes them an important and reliable source of tuition revenue—as long as teachers feel the need to get them.
Marguerite Roza, an education-finance expert, got an inkling of that fact when she published a paper arguing that states should end the “master’s bump.” The money going toward degree-based pay raises—nearly $15 billion nationwide in the 2007–08 school year—was a waste, she argued. She authored that paper from her perch at the time at the University of Washington’s College of Education—the very sort of institution that was benefitting from the arrangement.
The paper had been out for less than a week, Roza said, when she heard from the dean of the college, Patricia Wasley. Wasley told Roza she had been inundated by calls from deans of other education programs across the country, according to Roza. They were asking that she censure Roza or even make her retract the paper. Wasley declined.
“The college of ed, for sure, earned a lot of their money through this whole handshake relationship with the school districts,” Roza told me. “It makes colleges of education extremely resistant to any real change.”
That doesn’t make real change impossible, however—in fact, some states have already done it. In 2013, North Carolina stopped paying teachers extra for master’s degrees in part because of the research finding their limited impact on student achievement, and in part because of budget squeezes from the Great Recession.
But wait: Does this mean paying teachers less? As teacher strikes have swept across the country, the public has been reminded that in many places, teachers make so little that some end up taking second jobs, or even, in extreme cases, selling their plasma. In most places, we should be paying teachers more, not less.
Data shows that education master’s degrees are the second most commonly awarded master’s degrees in the country, after MBAs. That makes them a reliable source of tuition revenue for the universities—as long as teachers feel the need to get them.
Roza agrees. This money should still go to teachers—it just shouldn’t be tied to an expensive, time-consuming degree with no tangible benefit. Simply giving all teachers higher salaries, says Roza, would be better than having teachers go into debt to get degrees.
Some districts are proving that it’s possible to do one better. Over the past decade, DC Public Schools (DCPS), long seen as one of the worst school systems in the nation, has clawed its way up the ranks of urban school districts across the country. In 2019, only D.C. and one state (Mississippi) saw improvement across most measures on an important national test of fourth and eight graders. Some of those gains are due to demographic changes, but research shows that demographic change isn’t the whole story. The district also undertook a series of major but controversial reforms aimed at improving the quality of the teacher workforce. As part of the teacher effort, it abandoned the traditional practice of paying teachers strictly on the basis of years of service and graduate credits. It implemented a new evaluation system, combining principal evaluations throughout the year with student test scores and other measures. High marks meant that a teacher would get a substantial bonus and, in some cases, permanent bumps up the pay scale. The small percentage of teachers rated “ineffective” were dismissed. In addition to shifting to a performance-based pay system, the district also beefed up mentoring and career development, including by implementing a weekly coaching program.
Vast racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps among students remain, and when the Washington Teachers’ Union surveyed their members, a majority said they felt that the evaluations were unfairly subjective. But academic researchers found that, on average, low-performing teachers who leave the system are replaced by more effective ones. And a recent Washington Post poll found that the share of Washingtonians who approve of the city’s schools (including charters) is at a record high, and up sharply from 2008.
Not all school districts could easily replicate what DCPS has done. Smaller districts, especially in rural areas, can’t replace low-performing teachers so easily, and they may not have resources for a robust coaching system. In other words, those districts will still have to rely on university programs to provide continuing education for their teachers. The question is how to make those programs better.
When I put that question to experts, several suggested looking into Relay, an independent nonprofit grad school that focuses exclusively on teacher and school-leader education. Initially incubated within Hunter College and accredited in 2011, Relay was created to be a hyper-practical program for training new teachers. In their first year, students work in classrooms full-time with mentor teachers, earning assistant-teacher salaries. At the same time, they’re taking classes and being coached by professors—all of whom have been classroom teachers for years. In their second year, Relay students lead classrooms, earn full salaries, and continue to take courses and receive feedback. Student teachers submit video of themselves leading classes, which professors review and give them feedback on, like a football coach going over a game tape with players.
Relay has grown quickly, and now has campuses in 19 cities. It says it educates more than 4,000 student teachers. The school’s impact on students hasn’t yet been evaluated by third-party researchers, but some early indicators are promising. Relay had 18 first-year teachers working in DCPS in the 2018–19 school year who were assessed under the district’s evaluation system. While it’s hard to draw conclusions from such a small sample, Relay says the share of its first-year teachers scoring in the top two brackets was nearly 20 percentage points higher than other novice teachers in the district.
Researchers will watch as Relay and other programs test out new strategies. But there’s a larger, structural fix: decoupling master’s degrees from automatic raises. Enrollment in education master’s programs would almost surely dip, at least initially, but those still choosing to enroll would become more demanding customers. As Marguerite Roza and Patricia Wasley put it in a piece for Education Week responding to the backlash against Roza’s research, replacing the master’s bump with performance-based pay would “tip the scales to those programs that have redefined their offerings with a focus on achieving better results in the classroom.”
Figuring out how to actually make teachers more effective should be a national priority, Arthur Levine said. “The research makes clear that teacher quality is one of the best investments we could possibly make,” he told me. “Our future depends upon the quality of our teaching force.”
This piece was produced in partnership with FutureEd, an independent think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Brooke LePage provided research assistance.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described David Firestone as a special ed teacher. He is an associate special ed teacher. We regret the error.