Money builds schools, pays teachers and allows them to buy new technology for the classroom. But it does not improve graduation rates in Maryland.
According to a new survey by Editorial Projects in Education, Maryland’s graduation rate was 73.5 percent in 2006. That shows a decline of about 3 percentage points since the 2001-2002 school year – the year before Maryland started lavishing money on K-12 public education as a result of the 2002 Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act (Thornton Act).
That fact should give the federal government pause as it readies to dispense about $600 million in fiscal year 2010 in Maryland for the state’s K-12 public schools.
So far, it comes with few strings attached other than directing where it should be spent. According to the “90 Day Report” published by the Department of Legislative Services following the close of the 2009 legislative session: $156.5 million will be allocated to districts based on a formula driven by the number of low-income children in them; $137.3 million will be spent on increased teacher retirement costs; $110 million will go to fully fund the geographical cost of living index – AKA welfare for rich districts; $107.3 for special education; and lesser amounts for transportation and other expenses.
This money is already included in most local school budgets. What is not included are specific ways to measure how it will improve student learning and raise the percentage of students who graduate. As the 2002 legislation commonly referred to as Thornton shows, money, even a lot more money, doesn’t guarantee results.
Since Thornton took effect, per pupil funding in Maryland has risen to an average of $10,371 in 2007 from $8,344 in 2003 – a 10 percent inflation-adjusted increase. During that time Maryland used that money to hire a lot more personnel. According to a 2008 joint report by Benjamin Scafidi for the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and the Maryland Public Policy Institute, the pupil to total staff ratio fell 7.1 percent from fiscal year 2003 to fiscal year 2007.
But as the statistics note above, graduation rates have not improved. And relatively speaking, the state languishes in the middle of the pack compared to graduation rates in school systems around the nation, where the average graduation rate is 69.2 percent.
Maryland students have made gains in recent years, improving scores on 2007 math and reading tests given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The most recent results are the second time the state met or exceeded the national average in all four assessments administered to fourth and eighth grade students. And the vast majority of high school seniors are on track to pass state tests that allow them to graduate.
And perpetually underperforming Baltimore City students have made big strides since Andres Alonso became chancellor in 2007. Statistics from 2008 show that 26 percent more elementary and middle schools met federal performance guidelines compared to the year before. And attendance is up after four decades of decline.
Those results are satisfying. But meeting or minimally surpassing a national average in one of the richest states in the country and passing state tests designed to measure knowledge an eighth grader should hold in order to graduate high school are no great achievements.
And Baltimore City’s Alonso achieved success by shifting how resources are used rather than by injecting more money into the system. One of his key reforms is giving principals more control over per pupil funding, for example.
So the question remains what $600 extra million will do other than guarantee jobs and programs regardless of performance. And given the history of state spending, it will not go down when the stimulus money dissipates, requiring higher taxes.
A far better use of the money would have been to parcel it out as scholarships to the state’s low-income children to attend the school of their choice and to proven programs like KIPP, the national charter school organization. KIPP Ujima Village Academy, a public charter school in Baltimore City, is one of the highest performing schools in the state despite demographics that would predict otherwise. Extra money would give it the ability to multiply its success throughout the state. Both of those options would let the state and federal government link spending to results.
Right now the only measurement of success for the government is how quickly it releases the money.
Examiner columnist Marta H. Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute.
