Marta Mossburg explains why Maryland needs BOAST now more than ever

Maryland legislators could have prevented the closing of Towson Catholic High School this year. Leadership of the 87-old Baltimore County high school -- 40 percent of whose students are minorities and 45 percent of whom live in Baltimore City -- last week said the school would not reopen next year because of $650,000 deficit and declining enrollment.

Some have called the school a victim of the recession -- $160,000 in tuition went unpaid last year. But the bigger culprit is inertia in Annapolis. For years, legislators have mulled tax credit legislation that would make millions more available each year to public and private schools and save the the state millions in the process.

Called BOAST -- Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers -- it would give businesses an income tax credit for donating to scholarship organizations and giving money to public school enrichment programs.

Many states have passed similar legislation, including Indiana most recently. Pennsylvania passed similar legislation in 2001 with wide support from both parties and recently increased to $75 million from $45 million the amount available for students and teachers and expanded the types of businesses that can participate in it. About 3,600 businesses give to the program and about 60 give the maximum amount allowed, $300,000.

"The Fiscal Impact of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program," a study released last month by Andrew LeFevre, a Pennsylvania school choice expert who is executive director of REACH Foundation, showed that Pennsylvania saved $531.6 million in the 2007-2008 fiscal year by awarding 44,000 students tax credit scholarships. As he noted, if those children entered public schools, the state would have to find a half a billion dollars to educate them.

The same logic applies to Maryland. As state senator James "Ed" DeGrange (D-Anne Arundel), the lead sponsor of BOAST, said, "What people may not realize is that Towson Catholic and other nonpublic schools save Maryland taxpayers $1.5 billion annually in educational costs. BOAST would help ensure that those schools continue to thrive."

And as Mary Ellen Russell, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference said, the legislation would "bring communities around schools through business investment in local students."

With Maryland facing more than a $1 billion cash shortfall in fiscal 2011 and a potential $700 million shortfall in the current fiscal year, BOAST would not only help students attend the school best suited for them and give public schools added resources, but it would help the long term fiscal health of the state.

In a July 8 letter letter to state legislative leaders, Warren Deschenaux, director of Maryland's Department of Legislative Services, said that the budget outlook is "extremely challenging and will only get more so as the stimulus is withdrawn." He called for prompt action that is "substantial and durable" -- both of which descriptions fit BOAST.

The passionate response by alumni and students to Towson Catholic's closing shows that the school will not close for a lack of respect or its ability to educate students. The Archdiocese did not return phone calls seeking Towson Catholic's graduation rate, but Catholic schools across the country consistently graduate students at a high rate and their students regularly outperform public school students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and on the SATs. And they achieve these results despite spending thousands less per student than public schools.

In the case of Towson Catholic, the difference is about $2,000 between its tuition and the average cost to educate a student at a Maryland public school. This makes it the kind of school that should be expanded, not closed.

The same goes for the five other Catholic schools educating 847 students that are closing in Maryland for the next school school year. How many of those students choose to go to public schools next year is unknown, but any additions will cost the state more at a time it can least afford it.

As Gov. Martin O'Malley and state legislators grapple with how to cut the budget this summer, they should look to BOAST. Unlike other state follies like saving horse racing and financing money losing entertainment venues throughout Maryland, which only benefit the well-connected, BOAST will give generations of Marylanders the opportunity for a great education and lower its education bill. No more schools should have to fail to prove the point.

Examiner columnist Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow with the Maryland Public Policy Institute and lives in Baltimore