We had to look long and hard for good ideas glinting in the fetid swamp of tax increases proposed by Gov. Martin O?Malley, but seek and ye shall find a couple that may actually help reduce the $1.7 billion deficit.
Slots are one. We await a more detailed plan from the governor. Freezing some of the money spent on state education is another.
By the end of the year, the state will have spent an extra $3.5 billion since 2003 to give an “adequate and equitable” education to every child in the state. As The Examiner detailed recently, the mass of our money ? an extra $1.3 billion this year alone ? has not translated to a corresponding increase in knowledge, especially for the low-income, minority and learning-challenged students bureaucrats used to justify taking our money in the first place. The data show many students are no more likely to be proficient in math and reading than before the money started rolling in to schools. Some are worse.
The governor?s plan would temporarily halt spending related to inflation and save the state an estimated $213 million over the next two years. That is a start. But he also should have proposed freezing the extra funding for schools in districts with higher costs, including Baltimore City, Prince George?s County and Montgomery County, since increased money in those areas has not meant an increase in learning for students in those districts. Those costs, plus others related to teacher pensions and other formulas, will be about $119 million next year.
At the very least, O?Malley should have suggested linking the money to hiring teachers in hard to recruit subjects like math and science, and to bonuses for teachers who choose to work in low-performing schools. Most of the increases due to the 2002 legislation known as Thornton went into across-the-board salary increases for teachers.
Throwing more money at school districts with the neediest children without tailoring it to help the most disadvantaged students has not worked in the past. We see no reason why it will work in the future.
We respect that the governor is not slavishly following “funding formulas” when the state has no funds to support them. But the best route would be for O?Malley to call on the legislature to debate whether Thornton has achieved its goals rather than tweaking elements of it. Maryland taxpayers must not be asked to pay for legislation that enriches the teaching establishment but not students.
