Portfolio | Brian Kramer

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Brian Kramer

Educator | 🍎

Public School Teacher | 🧑‍🏫 Advocate | 📢

Maryland Born & Raised | 🦀

Welcome

About Me

Hey y'all! My name is Brian Kramer and this is my portfolio of my work and experience. As a teacher, I am continuing to commit myself to community service and advocacy while working to best serve the students I am teaching government and politics to.

My experience as a low-income homeless student taught me the value of compassion and of standing up for the most vulnerable communities from a young age. I hope to continue to use my life experiences and my skillset to work towards more fairness and more justice in my community.

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More of my photography is located on this page

Education & Experience

Education

Experience

Work

Achievements

As a sophomore in high school, I worked to found an advocacy group with friends, the Northwood Representation Program, in order to advocate for the needs of the entire Northwood High School community. As a student leader, I realized how critical a new school building would be to Northwood's future. Northwood was first built in 1954, closed in 1985, and reopened in 2004 without major renovations.

Fed up, I took a stand, organizing alongside other students to fill the room at a Board of Education hearing with Northwood students. We spoke passionately about Northwood's needs, with over 60 community members standing behind them.

Our fierce advocacy allowed Northwood to finally be scheduled for renovation starting in 2024, the first real improvement in Northwood's infrastructure in decades.

I fought for and help secure an expansion of the Kids Ride Free program, pushing the hours student could ride buses in Montgomery County for free from 2-8 pm to 24/7 whenever buses are in service. This vital improvement helps students be more involved in extracurricular activities and increases use of public transportation by our students.

My advocacy was personal: I relied on the Kids Ride Free program while in school because my family didn't have a car. I also took the RideOn to school each morning, meaning my family incurred a lot of expenses from just a $2 fare. Students now don't have that burden upon them because I told his story and worked with the County Council to pass this historic expansion.

My advocacy included speaking directly to the County Council about how important public transportation is to social mobility, and by co-authoring an op-ed in Greater Greater Washington with a fellow transit advocate supporting this program.

Click to access my proclamation to the Montgomery County Council, delivered on May 7, 2019 (just one month before I graduated!)

Press Coverage:

Since I got involved in student leadership in high school, I have prioritized the voices of students and the positive impact they can make on school systems. I ran for MCPS's student school board member position, eventually serving as one of the heads of the election process the next year.

I have been able to help promote the voices of student school board members across the state, including helping my home county's (Charles) SMOB gain partial voting rights in 2021.

I recognize how crucial it is that we listen to every stakeholder, but especially when listening to the people meant to be served by schools the most: students.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Click to access testimony against 2021's HB 629, which later received a (rare) unfavorable committee vote. This controversy was the subject of Maryland Supreme Court case Spiegel v. Board of Education of Howard County.

Click to access testimony on 2022's HB192, which was passed but later vetoed. It was eventually implemented anyways the following year.

Growing up, I found myself constantly facing housing insecurity and homelessness. This has prompted my focus and advocacy towards creating more housing and keeping people in their homes. I have worked to write and pass legislation, speak on panels, and share my story to help our housing crisis locally.

Starting in 2019 I served as a policy advisor for Delegate Vaughn Stewart (D-19), where I helped research components for a first-in-the-nation social housing program. The legislation (HB7, 2024, CH212) eventually passed and it provides $10 million for an innovative program to rapidly build mixed-income publicly owned housing to address Maryland’s critical housing shortage.

I have also spoken at events such as Communities United Against Hate's Panel "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once: Housing and Community Outcomes." My remarks are located on this page.

CUAHSpeech

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As a student leader, I successfully advocated for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to conduct a systemwide study of de-facto school
segregation and overcrowded school boundaries for the first time since the 1980’s.

Specific school attendance zones in MCPS are sought after due to home property values and desired student experiences, leading to community conflict. Despite this tension, the boundary analysis was successfully completed and candidates opposing it were defeated during the 2020 school board elections.

I helped organize One Montgomery, a revived advocacy group promoting equitable policies in MCPS. I organized students to speak to the school board in support of the boundary analysis, leading to a narrow school board vote in support.

My specific efforts included a blog article countering arguments against the analysis, which was cited by MCPS consultants as crucial to its eventual success. I also wrote a research paper analyzing the boundary analysis controversy.

This experience hardened my resolve to organize in the fact of tough odds for what is ultimately better for the community at large.

Press Coverage:

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When looking at the schools that I would be interested in working at, I created a spreadsheet that highlighted the current transportation routes at each public high school in Montgomery County. It turns out that this information was desperately needed, as schools did not have good resources to share with families who wanted to know the routes serving their schools!

What was intended to be information gathering quickly turned into a public service, as principals began sharing the spreadsheet with families. The effort also got the attention of a member of the County Council's transportation committee, as it showed the importance of making the many options available to people in Montgomery County clearer and laid out in an informative way.

While not updated since 2021, the archived spreadsheet can be located here.

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The spreadsheet included routes, frequency, distance to the main campus, and closest Metro line station. I also included the Free and Reduced Meals (FARMS) rate to illustrate both the barriers to access for lower-income families and to highlight the impact that more reliable and affordable service could have for them.

Writings & Other Work

Writings & Projects

Over the years, I have written many articles and papers and have created countless spreadsheets to keep the general public informed. Through this portfolio I will share some examples of my past work, including some of my better undergraduate research and research into the politics and policy of my local community.

Maryland Map Series

This map was created to show the three types of school boards in Maryland: fully elected, partially elected and appointed boards, and fully appointed boards. The map shows that almost every single county in Maryland has a fully elected board, with Baltimore City standing out as a notable exception in the state with no elected members. Baltimore City will gain two at-large elected members in 2022, and it is unknown whether any hybrid boards will shift to being fully elected anytime soon. These changes are dependent on the state legislature.

Sources: Maryland state law governing school board composition

This map was created to show the true partisanship of Maryland school boards, with the information coming from the registration of each individual Board of Education member. Many of these counties differ heavily from their partisanship at the federal or even state level, with notable examples such as Frederick, Calvert, Dorchester, and Worcester counties. All school board members are elected under a nonpartisan designation in Maryland, which may allow Democrats in heavily conservative areas to move their way up through down-ballot races in areas like the Eastern Shore.

Sources: Maryland voter information

An underrated issue in public service is how much our elected officials are being paid. If positions that require a lot of commitment pay very little, you can expect to see important perspectives missing such as working parents and teachers who would make substantially less by leaving the classroom. This map highlights this, with school board members making a maximum of $25k/yr in ultra-expensive Montgomery County and no compensation in Harford and Baltimore City. Some data were not available and will be updated when it can be located.

Sources: State law, county board of education policies

Maryland is unique among other states, having two school systems with a student board member given as much regard as adult elected members. This map highlights those counties, including Montgomery and Anne Arundel, which are in the top 20 and top 50 largest school systems in the nation respectively. However, outside of these two notable examples, student board members either are not seated or are given incredibly limited powers. Provisions for voting rights of any kind only exist in the immediate Baltimore and Washington, DC metro areas.

Sources: Maryland state law governing school board composition

Undergraduate Papers & Writings

This is a collection of some of my undergraduate writing samples that stood out! Whenever possible, I incorporated my passion and interest in education and local politics. Gotta stick to a brand! Click to access each paper.

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, exploring its origins, legislative journey, and ultimate impact. Initially championed by President George W. Bush as a means to overhaul public education in the United States, NCLB faced significant hurdles in Congress due to its departure from traditional Republican education policies. Despite attempts to secure bipartisan support, compromises necessary for passage diluted the bill's original intent, omitting key Republican priorities like school choice vouchers. The legislative process, marked by contentious committee debates and numerous amendments, underscored the challenges of bipartisanship in education reform. Ultimately, NCLB's legacy is one of mixed results, criticized for its limited impact on student achievement and unintended consequences, contributing to political discontent within both major parties. The study highlights broader lessons on compromise in legislative processes and the enduring implications of NCLB on educational policy in the United States.

This paper examines the controversy over school boundary changes in Montgomery County, MD, focusing on how demographic shifts and inequity sparked activism. Once predominantly white, MoCo saw rapid diversification, highlighting issues of unequal access to education and housing. Advocacy groups like "One Montgomery" pushed for equitable school assignments, while others, such as "Montgomery County MD Neighbors for Local Schools," resisted change to maintain the status quo. I used social movement theory to analyze these dynamics, highlighting student activism against segregation and opponents' strategies to uphold existing norms. Despite these efforts, I concluded that the push for change faced significant resistance, leaving the status quo largely intact.

This paper explores the 2022 San Francisco school board recall election, analyzing it through the lens of social movements and counter-movements in public education. The recall effort, triggered by discontent over remote learning and school renaming controversies during the COVID-19 pandemic, targeted three school board members, including President Gabriela Lopez and Vice President Faauuga Moliga. Organizers framed the recall as a response to the slow reopening of schools and fiscal mismanagement by the board, amplifying concerns about equity and accountability. They strategically avoided partisan labels to broaden support across ideological lines, presenting themselves as a grassroots movement despite significant funding from outside donors. The success of the recall, removing all three targeted members by wide margins, highlights the effectiveness of framing contentious issues like school reopening and equity to mobilize support and challenge existing educational norms. This case study underscores how counter-movements can leverage social media and strategic framing to reshape public discourse and policy outcomes in education.

This paper focuses on assessing how mayoral control impacts public school governance in Washington, D.C., particularly concerning Black family participation. The study uses data from a 2008 Washington Post poll, examining respondents' views on mayoral control and the perceived issue of parental involvement in DC Public Schools (DCPS). Despite broader debates on educational reform, including the role of charter schools and school boards, the paper emphasizes the significant demographic and geographic factors in D.C., noting racial divides and historical contexts. Given that it was for a political research class, I used a chi-square test to explore correlations, revealing that while there's no significant relationship overall between opinions on mayoral control and views on parental involvement, there is a significant negative correlation among Black respondents. This suggests that mayoral control may disproportionately affect Black families' ability to engage with and influence the education system compared to other racial groups, underscoring ongoing challenges and the need for further research into governance and educational equity in urban settings like D.C.

Articles & Op-Eds Archive

Before I knew I was fully committed to advocating for change, I dabbled in more objective writing about Maryland and local politics. These articles are some of my better pieces of work, including an article about the 2019 boundary analysis movement that was cited as important for its eventual passage by school board members and the consultants hired to conduct the analysis.

There Are 17 And 18 Year Olds Voting On School Budgets, And That’s Amazing

There Are 17 And 18 Year Olds Voting On School Budgets, And That’s Amazing

Maryland really cares about the student voice, but they should do way more.

A Queer Reckoning in Maryland: Democrats and Same-Sex Marriage

A Queer Reckoning in Maryland: Democrats and Same-Sex Marriage

In Part One of A Queer Reckoning in Maryland, I examine intense Democratic opposition to same-sex marriage

Maryland Needs A Strong, Organized Progressive Caucus

Maryland Needs A Strong, Organized Progressive Caucus

After tense debate over police reform, Maryland progressives need to get organized and stick together.

MoCo 2020 Campaign Contributions

These four maps were created during the primary for the 2020 Montgomery County Board of Education At-Large primary. There were 13 candidates total in this primary, and many contentious issues facing the County including a controversial proposal to examine school assignment boundaries. Two candidates, Stephen Austin and Jay Guan, were viewed as leading candidates among the opposition to this analysis. Sunil Dasgupta and Lynne Harris were viewed as the leading proponents for this measure. Out-of-county contributions were excluded from this map and multiple donations from the same household were counted as one blip. These four maps show the location of where candidates received donations in the days leading up to the primary election on June 26th, 2020. Jay Guan raised the most money overall, which was concentrated in areas that opposed efforts for redistricting including Clarksburg and areas of Rockville zoned for high-performing schools. Stephen Austin, the leader of a Facebook group fighting the boundary analysis effort, was the third runner up in total fundraising and also raised money from these same areas. Very little of their fundraising came from Silver Spring or other areas in the eastern part of the County, which is voter-rich and diverse. Sunil Dasgupta, the teacher-union endorsed candidate, also raised a substantial amount of money. His funding was concentrated across Montgomery County, including in areas where Jay Guan and Stephen Austin received no donations. Lynne Harris, the Washington Post endorsed candidate, received far less fundraising support and had funding concentrated around where she lives in Silver Spring. Despite wide disparities in candidate fundraising, Lynne Harris rocketed to a first place finish with 29.2% of the vote and Sunil Dasgupta followed in second place at 20.6%. Jay Guan, despite his fundraising haul, placed in 6th out of 13th place with 5.4% of the vote. Stephen Austin finished 3rd with 13% of the vote. Over 210,000 voters participated in the June 26th, 2020 primary. My analysis of this result centered on three questions: Is raising and spending a lot of money better than receiving a wide variety of local endorsements? Can candidates win by receiving support from a few areas of MoCo? Was the boundary analysis as potent as conventional wisdom thought they were? My answer to these three questions, as shown by the results and these maps, is that local races rely heavily on endorsements rather than solely fundraising, candidates cannot win without diverse geographical support, and the two candidates who advanced from the primary were supportive of the boundary analysis and thus not as controversial as we thought it would be. Sources: Maryland State Board of Elections Results, Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System (MDCRIS)

MoCo Board of Education Primary Spreadsheet/Endorsement Tracker

(January-June 2020)

This spreadsheet was created to share information about the contentious primary election for the school board in Montgomery County, MD. This spreadsheet highlighted information about what candidates were running, how to contact or hear from them, how much they raised, and who endorsed them. This spreadsheet showed the competitive nature of the election and how much money was being raised by the campaigns, as well as where party-brokers in Montgomery County chose to give their support. This project helped hone my skills in local elections research and allowed me to keep people up to date on the election itself.

The preserved spreadsheet is located here.

Sources: Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System (MDCRIS), campaign press releases.

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