The True School-to-Prison Pipeline Is Illiteracy
Two MCPS board candidates just opposed School Resource Officers. Here is what they are not telling you.
We have been having the wrong conversation about the school-to-prison pipeline in Montgomery County.
The dominant narrative blames school discipline — suspensions, exclusions, and police presence — for funneling Black and Hispanic children into the criminal justice system. It is a compelling frame. It is also incomplete. The data tells a more precise and more urgent story: the true school-to-prison pipeline is illiteracy.
Nationwide, the statistics are stark. The U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that roughly 70% of incarcerated adults perform at the lowest two literacy levels — what researchers describe as functional illiteracy. Further, children who cannot read proficiently by third or fourth grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. High school dropouts face incarceration rates up to 63 times higher than college graduates. 85% of juveniles interfacing with the court system are functionally illiterate.
MCPS’ responsibility to close the achievement gap rests on those startling numbers. Unfortunately, our public school system is dropping the ball. Only 55.3% of MCPS students are proficient in reading and only 33.4% are proficient in math. Those numbers have barely moved despite years of rising budgets, with evidence showing that fully funding MCPS does not lead to academic excellence. Among the students bearing the heaviest burden of that failure: only 48.3% of Black students and 34.3% of Hispanic students are proficient in English Language Arts. In math, those numbers collapse to 22.9% and 15.7% respectively. Schools like Stedwick, Watkins Mill, Whetstone, and Captain Daly Elementary remain in the 15-36% proficiency range despite being part of a wealthy, well-resourced county. The results are in: the achievement gap has not closed meaningfully.
It is under this brutal context in which Omar Lazo and Wylea Chase just told Montgomery County parents that they do not support restoring School Resource Officers.
Let that sink in.
What SROs Actually Do — In Schools and In Our Communities
The National Association of School Resource Officer’s research consistently shows that properly trained SROs do not criminalize students. They build relationships, de-escalate conflict, and create the conditions in which learning can actually happen. RAND Corporation’s research found that when SROs are integrated into a school system, the benefits go beyond reduced violence in schools. Officers build relationships with students while serving as a resource to students, teachers, administrators, and the broader community to help solve problems. Furthermore, research shows schools with strong SRO programs have lower juvenile delinquency rates than those without one — meaning the safety of our neighborhoods, not just our hallways, improves. SROs are also linked to meaningful drops in rape, robbery, and assault on school grounds — crimes that do not stay on school grounds when left unaddressed.
The DOJ COPS Office is explicit: beyond law enforcement, SROs serve as educators, emergency managers, and mentors. They develop community justice initiatives for students, train students in conflict resolution, and connect at-risk youth to services before they enter the juvenile justice system. A student who has a trusted, trained SRO in their school is a student who is less likely to become a statistic in our community crime data. That matters to every Montgomery County resident, not just parents of MCPS students. Eight years ago, MCPS School Resource Officer Lowery proved that same case.
Research from the University of Buffalo confirms that properly selected, trained, and governed SROs can achieve positive outcomes and divert youth from juvenile court by connecting at-risk students to needed services before the damage is done. As we can see, SROs are clearly an investment in our community’s future.
The removal of SROs represents, therefore, a profound failure. A board of education has a fiduciary duty to act as a faithful steward of public funds in service of one mission: the academic excellence of every child in its care. When MCPS removed School Resource Officers in 2021, it abandoned that most fundamental duty. As I documented in my Clean Slate MoCo article in 2024, the results were immediate and documented. Teachers anonymously reported major fights at Clarksburg High School. A student brought a loaded gun to Gaithersburg High School. A Kennedy High School teacher testified before the Board of Education about rampant vaping and drug activity, quoting a police officer who described the school as an “open-air drug market.” Montgomery County experienced a 120% increase in youth fatal overdoses.
Teachers, students, parents, and families know– safe, orderly learning environments are not a luxury. They are the prerequisite for the explicit instruction, the structured literacy, and the knowledge-rich curriculum that close the achievement gap and break the true school-to-prison pipeline: illiteracy. A child who cannot learn because their classroom is in chaos will not read. A child who cannot read will not graduate. A child who does not graduate is statistically far more likely to end up in the criminal justice system. Every link in that chain leads back to the same failure of fiduciary duty. No matter how they may try to frame it, removing SROs was not an equity decision. It was a dereliction of the board’s most fundamental obligation to our children.
While the opponents of SROs wave the banner of equity as their primary motivation, they will not tell you: MCPS’s suspension rate is among the lowest in Maryland — well below state and national averages. In a district of over 160,000 students, 230 students received out-of-school suspensions in the first five weeks of 2024-2025 — rising to 296 students in the same period of 2025-2026 following the new Student Code of Conduct. That is 66 additional students out of 160,000 — an increase from 0.14% to 0.19% of the total student population. Folks, Montgomery County is not criminalizing its students. The fear-mongering about SROs turning hallways into police states is not grounded in MCPS data. In fact, the removal of SROs had the opposite effect their proponents intended. Punishments increased, all while removing the trained officers who could have de-escalated situations before they ever reached that point.
Leaders throughout Montgomery County share in parents’ concerns. Lee Holland, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35, wrote in February 2026 that since the elimination of the SRO program, MCPS has experienced the only two in-school shootings in its history — and noted that if you ask the CEOs themselves, they will tell you the current model is flawed and does not improve the relationship between students and police or provide greater protection. The Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals has formally supported the return of SROs. Just a few weeks ago, Rockville City Councilmember Adam Van Grack and Yamil Hernández renewed their public calls to bring SROs back following a string of violent incidents involving guns inside MCPS buildings. The people closest to our schools — principals, administrators, and law enforcement — are telling us the same thing. It is time to listen. The question is why two candidates for the Board of Education are still saying no.
The Candidates Who Don’t Want You to Know This
When Lazo and Chase oppose SROs, they are not protecting students. They are protecting political positions. Lazo is backed by the MCEA Apple Ballot machine. Chase’s background is in equity advocacy. The union that backed ending the SRO program in 2021 is the same union backing Lazo’s candidacy in 2026. The organizations that supported the removal of SROs and that have championed process-driven equity initiatives without measurable academic results back Chase. Jefferson understood what was at stake: ‘Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.’ A candidate who opposes the safety that makes learning possible and ignores the literacy crisis devastating our children is not serving the people in the slightest.
The children left behind by illiteracy, disorder, and unsafe classrooms are not abstractions. They are the 51.7% of Black students and the 65.7% of Hispanic students in MCPS who cannot read at grade level. They are the students who will not graduate. Who will not find stable employment. Who are statistically more likely to end up in the criminal justice system — not because a police officer was present in their school, but because no one ensured they could read.
What Real Safety Looks Like
Restoring SROs is not the only answer. It is part of a comprehensive approach that includes a Teachers’ Bill of Rights to restore classroom authority — modeled on laws in Alabama and Louisiana, the only two states to surpass their pre-pandemic academic scores, strict enforcement of the Student Code of Conduct, and most critically, a knowledge-rich, explicit instruction curriculum that gives every child the foundational literacy skills to build a life.
The Mississippi Miracle and the Southern Surge states — documented extensively by education researcher Karen Vaites on her Substack — prove that explicit instruction, high standards, and structured, safe learning environments work. Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama share a common playbook: knowledge-rich curriculum, structured literacy, high academic standards, and safe, orderly learning environments. They work for Black students. They work for Hispanic students. They work for every child regardless of zip code or income.
Importantly, Montgomery County has a once-in-a-generation advantage in this fight that most of the country does not. Dr. Carey Wright — the architect of the Mississippi Miracle, the longest-serving state superintendent in Mississippi history, who moved Mississippi’s fourth graders from the bottom of the nation to 21st in the country — is now Maryland’s State Superintendent of Schools. She is actively working to replicate those reforms in Maryland through the science of reading, classroom literacy coaches, and evidence-based instruction. The playbook is here. The leader is here. What is missing is a Board of Education willing to implement her changes with fidelity and hold MCPS accountable to the results.
Friends, safety and academic excellence are not in conflict. They are the same commitment, expressed two different ways. We owe our children to put them first by putting these two priorities first.
Together, let’s rebuild the foundation of academic excellence in MCPS by bringing back our School Resource Officers.
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"Alabama and Louisiana, the only two states to surpass their pre-pandemic academic scores" -- Wow!
As usual, Ms. Diaz, you are the best!