Fake applications, often generated by artificial intelligence, defraud educational institutions by generating financial aid for people who aren’t actually applying to college and later disappear with the money.

Such “ghost” student scams have been an increasing problem in Maryland and across the country and imperil student aid coffers, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

“When rampant fraud is taking aid away from eligible students, disrupting the operations of colleges, and ripping off taxpayers, we have a responsibility to act,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in June, when announcing stricter security measures for the fall semester.

The spring of 2024 began an onslaught of fake applications to the Community College of Baltimore County, with more volume and complexity than the institution had seen before , according to Matthew Lang, the school’s assistant vice president of enrollment and outreach operations.

The school has been developing solutions for the scam applications since May of that year, he said. But outpacing scammers has turned into an arms race. At first, batches of 20 to 30 applications would arrive within short periods, causing staff to flag them. In response, the scammers started submitting applications at a slower rate, one every two hours.

“We start to see a pattern. We stop it. Then they adjust,” Lang said. He said the phony applications are likely tied to criminal rings, not just individual scammers.

In Maryland, the problem appears to be primarily affecting community colleges.

“We are not aware of this happening at our universities, but we are aware of this happening at other institutions and are monitoring,” Michael Sandler, a spokesperson for the University System of Maryland, said in a statement Thursday. The USM does not include community colleges.

The Department of Education noted that such scams siphon millions of dollars in aid money intended for real students. One community college in California flagged 10,000 suspicious applications, the department said. Members of California’s congressional delegation, in a letter to the department, stated that 34% of the state’s community college applications were found to be fraudulent.

Minnesota saw similar rates of fraud, the Department of Education noted. And, in the fall of 2024, the College of Southern Nevada wrote off $7.4 million due to fraudulent enrollments, it added.

As a result, ineligible recipients nationwide had received $90 million in student aid as of May, the education department reported. As of February, $40 million in direct loan payments and $6 million in Pell Grants, which are for undergraduate students with high levels of financial need, were wrongfully disbursed, it said.

Maryland education officials did not comment when asked about the financial impact of such scams in this state.

To combat the fraud, the department reinstated certain safeguards, such as flagging suspicious financial aid applicants and automated screening of student aid records.

“Ghost” or “spam” students often use stolen identities to apply for financial aid and community classes. Others apply legitimately, but only for the purpose of getting a financial aid refund, according to Tamika Bybee, associate vice president for enrollment services at Howard Community College.

Now, because Howard’s spam students know they need to participate to get refunds, they are using AI also to submit assignments and participate in class discussion posts.

“That’s another aspect that has now made it extremely difficult to pinpoint whether these are spam or fraudulent students,”  Bybee said. “They’re becoming very savvy.”

AI for bad, and for good

AI can also help stop fraud. While the fraudsters are using it to fill out applications, Lang said CCBC uses it to find patterns or discrepancies in suspicious applications.

CCBC’s new application platform can track and assess the time taken on each question, as well as where students stop the application. After submission, each application is carefully reviewed by software for legitimacy before proceeding to the admissions process. The software flags suspicious applications before passing them to staff for manual review and requesting additional information from the student.

The school receives over 20,000 applications every year, but the increased scrutiny and review process largely hasn’t delayed legitimate applicants’ admissions, Lang said.

“That is certainly something that our president wanted to make sure did not happen,” he said.

Because the software filters through applications quickly, a student whose application was judged as suspicious might not even know they were delayed, Lang said.

“Community colleges, because we’re an open door, … it’s a less intensive admissions process. Whereas … at a four-year [college or university], it’s a multi-month process. So we’re much shorter than anything a four-year would experience,” Lang said.

Howard Community College sees between 15,000 and 20,000 applications yearly, according to Bybee. Before the school’s spam control was implemented, up to a third of the applications it received were ghost students, she said.

A dedicated spam team now hand-reviews each application, Bybee said. The spam team catches red flags such as multiple applications with the same phone number or fake IDs submitted as identity verification. The team can review and clear an application within three days; however, in-person applicants and enrollees can be done in one day.

Those who are caught trying to fool the school get dropped from all their classes and have to face federal regulations, she said. If aid has already been disbursed, the school has to return the aid to the government. If the spam student has alreadygotten their refund, that contributes to the school’s debt.

New security measures coming

An official from Anne Arundel Community College agreed that “emerging technologies continue to introduce new and evolving risks.”

“Anne Arundel Community College remains proactive and adaptable, implementing strategies that evolve with the threat landscape,” said Felicia Patterson, vice president for Learner Support Services at Anne Arundel Community College.

Nationwide applicants for summer programs saw some heightened security measures, but a new, permanent screening process is coming in the fall with the aim of ending identity fraud in financial aid, the Department of Education said in June.

Although Lang did not have details yet on what that process would look like, he said he expects the federal government will request more identity verifications with additional steps, as well as more data collection from the school.

The processing system behind the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, selects applications that require additional verification, according to the Federal Student Aid office’s website. Schools can separately elect to verify information on a student’s aid application.

To verify their identities, applicants must show a school representative valid, government-issued photo identification in person, via live video conference or through notarized documentation.

Both CCBC and Howard Community College are already requiring flagged applicants to come in person or on a video call with government-issued identification, according to Lang and Bybee. .

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The $4 million compensation package provides for the modest COLA increase on Sept. 20. The pay bump translates into about $329 for each union member, Rogers said.

Other scheduled “step” raises and related increases, which employees had hoped would take effect this summer, will instead be delayed until Jan. 1 — the same arrangement the school district made with the other four unions representing its employees.

Members of the district’s other unions will get the remaining value of their scheduled cost-of-living adjustments, which vary by union, on Jan. 1.

All district employees, including non-union staffers, were included in the 1% raises “as part of our ongoing commitment to recognize the dedication” of all employees, Rogers said in a statement. Although the tentative deal between the teacher’s union and Baltimore County Schools was reached last week, its details weren’t announced until this week.

That delay in salary bumps had been a sticking point between the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, known as TABCO, and the district for months. Originally, TABCO members had initially expected to receive the cost-of-living adjustment, as well as “step” and “compression” pay increases, on July 1, according to union leadership.

In January, employees from the five unions will receive an average 5% compensation increase, according to the district.

TABCO president Cindy Sexton told The Sun on Wednesday that the delays mean the pay increase next year actually amounts to 3.05%, because the increases are delayed by six months. The union’s original contract with Baltimore County Schools called for the increases to be for the entire fiscal year, which started July 1, she said.

“We’re disappointed that our original three-year agreement was not honored,” union president Cindy Sexton said Wednesday when asked about the deal. “Every other contract the school system has is treated as a fixed cost, and this contract was not.”

Though language in all five unions’ contracts leaves the district room to renegotiate in case of funding troubles, like the district had this budget season, “that should not have been the fallback on what we need for our educators,” she said.

“This was always about making sure we have educators for our students,” Sexton said. “We will lose educators to other systems around us that are doing better with their … COLAs, … with their raises, with their compensation. And it’s going to be detrimental to our students.”

Even so, the union issued a statement on Wednesday stating that the deal represents a cash value of $26 million, compared to the $9 million package the district offered in May.

TABCO has an all-member meeting Thursday. Members can vote on the agreement Friday through Tuesday, Sexton said.

.Additionally, the deal provides that, pending school board approval, TABCO employees will have the day before Thanksgiving as a half-remote professional development day and a half mental health day. Another existing professional development day would be made remote.

“Our unwavering commitment to the education and well-being of our 110,000 students was at the center of our negotiations in 2023 and has remained true despite this extraordinarily challenging fiscal climate,” Rogers said. “We appreciate the collaboration of all parties involved in the negotiations. This agreement reflects our commitment to providing competitive salaries for Team BCPS staff and to fiscal responsibility while fast forwarding student achievement.”

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The Department of Education announced that it will release $1.3 billion in nationwide educational funding out of the $6.8 billion it was scheduled to be disbursed on or about July 1. Multiple states, including Maryland, are now involved in litigation to recover the rest of the money.

The Maryland State Department of Education expects to get $22.6 million of the $110 million back, spokesperson Cherie Duvall-Jones said. But, as of Monday, the state had not received any of that promised grant money.

All of that will fund the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, a grant program that supports students and families, particularly those from low-income schools.

The 21st Century Community Learning Center program “provides comprehensive after-school and summer programs that have academic components, enrichment components, that are really sort of the creme de la creme …  of out-of-school time because they are so robust,” said Ellie Mitchell, director of the Maryland Out of School Time Network, a state professional association for after-school and summer programs.

Organizations relying on its grants were at risk of closure when Mitchell spoke with The Baltimore Sun before the Trump administration said it would restore some of the withheld funding Friday afternoon.

“We’re really changing the trajectory of young people’s lives with after-school [programs]. And if you take that away, we’re not going to be able to reach Maryland’s ambitious goals around improving literacy, improving math, improving school-day attendance,” she said.

Students at Village Learning Place, a grant recipient in north Baltimore’s Charles Village neighborhood, typically improve in those areas throughout the school year, according to Deputy Director Annie Malone. The center serves about 200 children from preschool through 12th grade each year.

It holds a three-year grant under the initiative, which must be renewed annually. The grant provides them with over $350,000 each year, which Hayes described as a “stable base” for the organization to build upon, along with other funding sources.

“It would be devastating for us to not have that funding,” said Siobhán Hayes, Village Learning Place’s executive director.

Meanwhile, a Baltimore adult education program didn’t receive any reassurances Monday about federal funding it receives through the federal Department of Labor.

“This time of year, we depend on a really huge payment that gets dropped,” said Melissa Smith, executive director of the South Baltimore Learning Center in Federal Hill. Nearly a third of the almost $670,000 in grant money was supposed to arrive weeks ago.

Without that money, notices signed by Smith are posted on the center’s doors announcing a temporary closure.

“This summer semester, we enrolled over 180 learners, which is a record number. … And I had to turn them away.”

The center employs 21 full- and part-time staff members and typically serves over 800 adult learners a year, according to Smith.

“We have to not ignore adult literacy and adult education because there are so many lives on the line,” Smith said. “This place could be the reason why someone chooses not to commit a crime or not get incarcerated … because they have an option to get education versus making a poor choice.”

The state Department of Labor declined to comment Monday on the partial restoration of funds.

South Baltimore Learning Center is holding a rally Wednesday to advocate for its funding. It invited Mayor Brandon Scott and Gov. Wes Moore. Neither had accepted the invitation as of Monday afternoon.

Baltimore County Public Schools does not expect any delay in services due to the cuts, spokesperson Gboyinde Onijala said in an email Monday.

“USDOE has only agreed to restore limited funding for afterschool programming, which was not one of the programs that directly affects our budget,” Andre Riley, spokesperson for Baltimore City Public Schools, said Monday.

Regarding the remaining funds frozen by the Department of Education, “we will face challenges in ensuring that staffing, materials, and other resources will be fully in place for the start of the 2025-2026 school year,” Riley wrote in an email.

The withheld funds have the power to affect after-school programs statewide. The Howard County Public School System said in a statement Monday that while federal funding isn’t its primary source of revenue, it was concerned about the impacts withheld funds could have on multilingual learners, professional development and grants.

“HCPSS is awaiting additional details and guidance from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget/U.S. Department of Education and MSDE on if/when these allocations will be disbursed. In the meantime, HCPSS remains committed to providing students and families in Howard County with the top education they are accustomed to,” the district said.

“It’s hard to imagine how we’re going to improve education by decreasing the resources available to public schools. It just doesn’t compute,” Mitchell said.

Baltimore Sun reporter Kiersten Hacker contributed to this article.

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The defense team is seeking sanctions that range from recusing prosecutors to dismissing the case against the former Gilman School valedictorian. They also want all communications between insurer Aetna and the District Attorney’s Office, as well as sworn testimony from prosecutors and the insurance company, for a full evidentiary hearing on the issue.

Although they only requested Mangione’s account number and the period of time during which he was insured, prosecutors received 120 pages, “the entire designated record set,” from Aetna when it provided Mangione’s insurance, including statements he made about his health, according to the defense’s letter.

Once prosecutors received the dossier, they partially reviewed it, the motion says. The defense wants sworn testimony and computer forensic information regarding who reviewed which files, when and for how long.

The prosecutors’ “false and fraudulent” subpoena to Aetna listed a court date that was never scheduled and was signed by a member of the district attorney’s office, not a judge, the defense says. Additionally, prosecutors received the records from Aetna directly, when proper procedure dictates that the judge should have gotten them first.

“We deleted the materials as soon as we became aware of them and brought it to defense and the court’s attention,” the District Attorney’s Office said when asked for comment on the defense’s accusations.

The defense team declined to comment on the case.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA, protects patients’ private health information. It requires entities, such as health insurance companies, to refrain from improperly disclosing medical information and to limit disclosures to the minimum necessary amount for any given purpose, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The defense contends Aetna violated HIPAA by sending all of Mangione’s medical records to the prosecution. An Aetna representative told prosecutors the company sent the records in error because it had received another subpoena from the defense around the same time, according to the letter. The defense denies having served a subpoena to the company.

“By reaching a secret arrangement to have Aetna send the information to the District Attorney directly, and not to the Court, the District Attorney ensured that the confidential, HIPAA-protected, doctor-patient privileged information was not subject to challenge by the defense,” the filing states.

Had the defense known about the subpoena, they would have objected on several grounds, the letter says.

“It is clear that the District Attorney utilized a false and fraudulent subpoena to secure these confidential medical documents behind the back of both the Court and defense counsel so as to rush this case to trial in a manner that prejudices Mr. Mangione,” it reads.

Mangione’s next appearance in court for this case is scheduled for Sept. 16. His other cases, one in the federal court in New York and another in Pennsylvania, are proceeding separately.

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The agreement signed in late June between the university and former soccer player Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor’s philanthropic organization, the SEA Foundation, is aimed at promoting experiential learning, entrepreneurship, and leadership development, according to the school.

Although the partnership’s details are still being finalized, it seeks to facilitate an academic exchange between the two continents. A possible Morgan State hub, business incubator and leadership development center could all bring the HBCU’s footprint to Togo.

“Together, we are establishing a bridge that connects the rich intellectual and cultural strengths of Togo with the academic excellence and innovation of Morgan,” the university’s President David K. Wilson said in a news release. “Our collaboration will empower the next generation of global leaders from both nations while serving as a model for international engagement between HBCUs and the African continent.”

The school hopes to have a “major announcement” on the final plan around the beginning of 2026, said Yacob Astatke, assistant vice president for international affairs at Morgan State.

Other collaborations, including the Adebayor Lecture series and study abroad for students and faculty, should be easier to implement, Astatke said. Morgan students and faculty might be able to study on the SEA Foundation’s African University of Science, Technology and Trade campus in Togo’s capital, Lomé, as early as 2026, he said.

As for African students coming to the United States, the details are still in discussion. As many as 20 students could come, depending on funding availability, according to Astatke.

“We’re also envisioning faculty exchange in both directions,” he said.

Though formally Morgan plans to work mainly with the SEA Foundation’s school, because of that university’s close relationship with Togo’s public University of Lomé, “chances are our faculty and students also will be engaged with some type of collaboration” there, Astatke said.

After a turbulent school year for international students, Astatke said Morgan was unaffected by changing federal student visa policies. He has been “pleasantly surprised” to hear students have been able to schedule their visa interviews within two to three weeks.

But getting an interview appointment doesn’t guarantee a visa, he said. Though Togolese students are currently under a visa restriction from the state department, it’s easier for students or researchers to get visas than tourists, Astatke said.

The university contributes $1.5 billion annually to Maryland’s economy, according to a recent independent study. International students pay out-of-state tuition, so they contribute to the university’s bottom line while bringing cultural diversity to campus, Astatke said.

Morgan has been deepening its relationship with Africa for years. In 2017, it hosted 12 vice chancellors from Nigerian universities and established memoranda of understanding with four, its website says. In 2020, it signed an MOU with Tertiary Education Trust Fund, “the largest human capacity development Agency on the continent.”

That agreement attracted nearly 100 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from Nigeria to Morgan State over a five-year period ending in 2025, according to Astatke.

The latest MOU with the SEA Foundation aligns with one of Morgan’s long-term strategic goals of expanding its international footprint and increasing international student enrollment.

“We have partnerships around the world,” he said, referencing ties to the Middle East, Turkey and Europe. “Morgan is trying to become … a global HBCU.”

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Details of the deal won’t be made public until after July 23, said union president Cindy Sexton. The school board and the union’s board must also still approve it, she said.

The agreement follows an impasse that began in June, resulting from a funding shortfall that threatened to jeopardize their negotiated pay increases of 5%.

“We are pleased to announce that today … Baltimore County Public Schools and the Teachers Association of Baltimore County reached a tentative agreement, which brings the impasse to an end. We appreciate the collaboration of all parties involved in the negotiations,” the school district and TABCO said in a joint statement.

The union’s negotiation team worked for 10 hours on Tuesday, TABCO posted Wednesday morning on Facebook, before the agreement was announced.

The other unions that work with the school district had already closed their renegotiated deals. Those arrangements allowed for delays in the compensation increases employees were promised in their three-year contracts.

TABCO previously argued those delays, which push back the promised wage increases six months from July 1 to Jan. 1, 2026, represented a loss for its members, saying in a June Facebook post that time frame meant “a 2.3% reduction to our increases, from 5% to 2.7% for both next school year and the school year after. This also means you will work from July to January without a pay increase for the next two years.”

While the school year was still in session, the teachers’ union rallied multiple times across the county in support of their compensation increases. It had also authorized work-to-rule, walk-ins and walk-outs.

County Council member Izzy Patoka said he was “pleased” the union and the school district came to an agreement.

“I wish it had come sooner,” he said. “We are in the second year of a three-year agreement, so appropriation levels should have been consistent with the agreement.”

School board chair Jane Lichter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

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According to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, the federal Department of Education notified states on June 30 that it was rescinding the money for six formula programs. That, the attorneys general argue, violates various federal laws and regulations as well as the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.

Statewide, $110 million is on the line — nearly $99 million anticipated by the Maryland State Department of Education and $11.49 million for adult education programs, according to state schools officials.

The lawsuit, filed in the federal District Court of Rhode Island, seeks a ruling that declares the funding freeze unlawful and makes the funds available to the states again.

“This reckless funding freeze is directly harming Maryland’s students by taking more than $110 million from Maryland K–12 schools and adult education programs, which has jeopardized teacher training, thrown essential special needs services into chaos, and left families scrambling to find childcare before the start of a new school year,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement Monday.

The federal Department of Education traditionally makes about a quarter of these funds available for states around July 1 each year, according to the attorney general’s office. But this year broke the trend, as the education department says it is aligning spending with the executive branch’s priorities.

“The Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities,” the Department of Education’s June 30 notice to the Maryland State Department of Education said in part, according to court documents.

But the attorneys general argue it wasn’t up to the Trump administration, stating in court filings that Congress designated the funding streams as “formula grants,” which the government is obligated to disperse to the states.

“The frozen funding does not derive from discretionary or competitive grant programs. Formula funds are calculated automatically using specific formulas written into the law and administered by [the Department of Education],” State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright wrote in a court document.

The Maryland State Department of Education is still working to understand the full effects of the funding freeze, which might result in layoffs, she wrote.

Maryland school districts have already created budgets for the upcoming school year that assumed they would receive the formula funding, according to Wright. And some Maryland school districts “have active summer programming that is funded in whole or [in] part by the funding that is currently being withheld.”

Representatives from the Maryland State Department of Education declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Instead, the department released a statement: “We are committed to supporting our school systems, students, and families as the uncertainty of the federal funding landscape for many programs continues. Our state is not deterred from our focus on maintaining high standards and accountability that drives student success.”

Baltimore City Public Schools is losing more than $11 million in funding that was meant to support 29 full-time positions, “critical contractual support,” instructional materials and other resources, Kimberly Hoffman, executive director of data monitoring and compliance for the district, wrote in a court filing.

Hoffman listed programs such as professional development, teacher recruitment, English education for multilingual learners and AP classes as items the now-withheld federal money contributed to.

When asked for comment, Baltimore City Public Schools referred The Baltimore Sun to a portion of Hoffman’s court declaration.

“Because these federal funds have been withheld, City Schools will face challenges in ensuring that staffing, materials, and other resources will be fully in place for the start of the 2025-2026 school year,” Hoffman wrote. “As a result, [the Department of Education’s] actions threaten to undermine the carefully planned and targeted interventions and supports that City Schools has invested to continue its recognized progress in student growth.”

Anne Arundel County will lose $4.2 million if the funding is not reinstated.

More than 28,000 Maryland adult learners, including those learning English and those working toward their high school diplomas, are served by education department formula grants authorized under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Erin Roth, assistant secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Division of Workforce Development and Adult Learning, wrote in court filings.

The AEFLA money supports nine full-time Adult Education and Literacy Services employees, 100 subgrantee employees, more than 1,000 part-time subgrantee instructors, instructional materials, educational software licenses and assessments for adult learners, Roth wrote.

Cuts to adult learner programming “concretely limit[s] their economic mobility,” as those without a high school diploma in Maryland in 2023 earned about 20% less than those who have one, Roth said in the filing.

The Department of Education said last week it was ending “taxpayer subsidization of illegal aliens in career, technical, and adult education programs” under AEFLA and other statutes.

The state Department of Labor declined to comment due to the ongoing litigation.

The Department of Education is even making cuts to itself, as the president and Education Secretary Linda McMahon work toward their goal of dismantling it. The Supreme Court greenlit layoffs of nearly 1,400 of the department’s employees on Monday.

“We will carry out the reduction in force to promote efficiency and accountability and to ensure resources are directed where they matter most — to students, parents, and teachers,” McMahon said in a statement Monday after the decision came down. “As we return education to the states, this Administration will continue to perform all statutory duties while empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy.”

The government’s deadline to respond to the lawsuit is July 28.

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Dunkin’s DMV Regional Scholarship Program, now in its fourth year, gave $125,000 to 50 scholars across Washington, Maryland and northern Virginia, according to a news release. Dunkin’ picked the 25 Baltimore-area awardees out of an applicant pool of over 1,800.

The recipients attended a recognition ceremony and celebration at M&T Bank Stadium’s Miller Lite Gatehouse on Monday afternoon. Of the over 30 Maryland students who received scholarships, two Baltimore County students and three were Baltimore City students, the release says, though many Maryland counties were represented.

Felix Baum, 18, of Ellicott City, was one of Monday’s honorees. In the fall, he’ll be studying computer science at University of Maryland, College Park, with a minor (or possibly double major) in linguistics.

“Dunkin’ has fueled a lot of my high school career,” the Mt. Hebron High School grad told The Baltimore Sun. His go-to Dunkin’ drink is a matcha, but he also enjoys a pumpkin spice latte when available.

“It’s certainly a fraction of a larger cost, but it makes it that much easier to go to college,” he said. Baum said students met Ravens cheerleaders and Poe after getting a tour of the facility.

Local franchisees created the program in 2021, Dunkin’ said in the release. Students attending accredited two- or four-year colleges and universities or vocational-technical schools this fall were eligible.

“Our franchisees are passionate about investing in the next generation of leaders in our community, and this program allows them to give back to the people and neighborhoods that fuel their businesses,” Jamie Struwe, Dunkin’ senior field marketing manager, said in the release.

Dunkin’ partnered with nonprofit Scholarship America to host the celebration and administer the scholarships. The partners kicked off the scholarship program this year in March, with applications closing April 15.

Another recognition ceremony for the regional scholarship recipients will be held July 23 at Nationals Park.

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Maggie Litz Domanowski, who represents District 3, said Wednesday night on Facebook that she will run for re-election.

“I’ve been telling myself I will make a decision when I have to, but it’s a lie. I still have three children in the Baltimore County Public School System and I have no plans to abandon them nor any other of our BCPS students, educators, or community members,” Domanowski, mother to a rising seventh grader and two rising fourth graders, wrote online.

“I haven’t always loved my position nor campaigning … but I have always been grateful and glad to be here, serving my community and students to the best of my ability.”

The school board censured Domanowski in March for “a lack of courtesy and decorum” toward Rogers during a January school board meeting’s discussion of the budget proposal. Domanowski said she’s since appealed the censure, which is now in the hands of the State Board of Education.

Domanowski said her reason for running in 2026 is the same as why she ran in 2022 — her children are in public school.

“I like feeling like I have something to say for all of our students and our educators from a different point of view,” she said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun on Thursday. “I don’t have a ulterior motive other than I hear what they say, and I do what … I feel is best and what the majority wants in their … schools.”

Domanowski listed priorities such as higher standards for graduating high schoolers and improving third-graders’ literacy. She also told The Sun she is in favor of stronger cell phone restrictions.

“I don’t care about being right. I just want to do what’s right,” she said.

National politics are divisive right now, she said, but advised voters to pay attention to their local politics and look beyond political affiliations. School board elections in Baltimore County are nonpartisan.

“Pay attention to what people are saying and don’t worry about what their actual … politics are. Just worry about who they care about and what they say and what they’re going to do,” she said.

“Yes, I am conservative. I’ve always been conservative, but … when I go to the school board meeting, when I vote, I’m always voting for what’s best for … the school system.”

Domanowski has not yet officially filed to run as of Thursday morning, according to the state Board of Elections website. No school board members or outside challengers have filed for the 2026 Baltimore County school board race yet.

The 12-member board is comprised of one elected student representative with slightly limited voting power, four members appointed by the governor, and the rest are elected in each Councilmanic district every four years.

Domanowski was elected in 2022, along with Brenda Savoy, Christina Pumphrey, Rod McMillion, Julie Henn, the vice chair and chair Robin Harvey and Jane Lichter. Board members are limited to serving no more than three consecutive terms.

Baltimore County’s election map is changing as the county looks to add two more districts. Although the final map has not yet been approved, Ruie Lavoie, Director of the Baltimore County Board of Elections, said candidates can still file.

Any change in district borders will automatically place them as a candidate for that new district, she said, and candidates will be notified of those changes.

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Thomas Christian, 55, and Matthew Middleton, 34, both face three misdemeanor charges each for the fight that took place on the 3100 block of Greenmount Avenue. The altercation was reported to dispatch at 2:50 p.m. Sunday. Middleton was reportedly holding the sign before the violence started.

“I told him to put the sign down. He just sprayed me with mace, and I stabbed the motherf—er,” Christian said, walking back and forth between Greenmount Avenue and Old York Road, according to charging documents. He was unable to describe Middleton to police due to his intoxication, police wrote.

A report of a stab victim came from the nearby Waverly Ace Hardware, where police found Middleton.

Surveillance footage from a nearby business showed Middleton holding a “Trump sign,” wearing all black, sunglasses and a mask, charging documents state. The documents don’t provide any more detail about the sign.

Christian reportedly approached Middleton with a beer in hand. After speaking with Middleton, Christian “snatched the sign from Mr. Middleton’s hand and threw it to the ground,” according to charging documents.

Middleton then grabbed Christian’s shoulder and “took him to the ground using a chokehold,” the documents read. Middleton then got out an ASP, which the documents say is a kind of bat, and beat Christian with it several times.

Christian then got a knife from his waistband and stabbed Middleton in the left leg multiple times, according to charging documents. Middleton got off the ground and continued to strike Christian with the bat, spraying him with mace.

Middleton was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital with survivable injuries, according to police. Christian was taken to Union Memorial Hospital for complaints related to being sprayed with mace.

Police then took both men to Central Booking. Neither have attorneys listed on online court records. Christian posted bail, while Middleton was released on his own recognizance Tuesday. Both face trial dates in August.

Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos@baltsun.com, 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.