No issue in the campaign has generated more heat between Gov. Robert Ehrlich and Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley than education. Charges and countercharges fly like erasers in a classroom fight.
There are some facts to back up many of the claims and counter claims on both sides.
Did Ehrlich increase education funding by $1.4 billion, a “record level” as he says? Yes. Did he fund everything Democrats thought he was required to?
No, but an attorney general?s opinion said he didn?t have to.
Did student scores improve in Baltimore City schools, as the mayor says? Yes, at least in the elementary grades. And does the city run three of the best high schools in the state? Yes.
But does the city still have some of Maryland?s worst-performing schools, while getting the most money per pupil, as Ehrlich charges? Yes, just as it has the most students living in poverty and in dysfunctional families.
“I?ll be the first to admit that we have a long way to go,” O?Malley said.
The reality is that neither Ehrlich nor Mayor O?Malley have any direct impact or control of public schools anywhere in the state, except as “the appointing authority” for some local school boards ? a power the two officials share in the city ? and as “the funding authority” that funnels money to the school administrators appointed by the boards.
The battle over control of city schools came to a head in the spring when the legislature, with the full support of the mayor, delayed state intervention in 11 failing schools. O?Malley and city lawmakers say there was no plan. Three schools under state control and run by a private corporation have had mixed success in improving scores.
If elected governor, both men would increase funding for education, because the Thornton funding formula they argue about would require them to.
Teacher pensions, some of the lowest in the nation due to a revamping of the system in the 1980s, would also improve based on a law passed this year and signed by Ehrlich. O?Malley promises to improve them more, and increase incentives to recruit teachers.
As O?Malley charges, Ehrlich put less money in the budget for school construction than Gov. Parris Glendening, his Democratic predecessor.
But Glendening paid for much of this building from budget surpluses, while Ehrlich faced deficits. In good times ? and an election year, as the mayor points out ? the governor now says he will again budget $338 million for school construction, a record level the legislature appropriated.
Ehrlich has announced few plans for education in a second term, though he wants to increase the number of charter schools, the independently run schools paid for with taxpayer funds.
O?Malley says he will fund the Thornton formula, including the portion Ehrlich has failed to fund ? the geographic index providing more aid to school systems with higher local costs.
