Baltimore City Schools Takeover Signals The Need For More Choice In Education

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Monday, June 12, 2006
The 2005-2006 school year has been tumultuous for Baltimore City Schools, which prompts reflection about what policies should be enacted so the next school year can be better for children in Baltimore’s public schools.   “Nothing Has Improved”   Obvious frustration with Baltimore city’s school system reached its apex this year when Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced that the state department of education would take over seven of the city’s middle schools and four of its high schools that have been persistently failing for years and even decades. These schools are the particularly dysfunctional ones in a city where the majority of students are not getting a decent education. A quick analysis of the Maryland State Assessment (MSA) test scores for 2005 show this persuasively. Citywide, only 40 percent of Baltimore’s eighth graders are considered proficient or better in reading, and an even more heartbreaking 19.5 percent of these children are proficient or better in math. For comparison, 2005 statewide eighth grade reading and math proficiency rates are 66.4 percent and 51.7 percent, respectively. Read More »

Is More Education Spending The Answer In Maryland?

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
On January 5, 2006, Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. announced an initiative to spend an additional $462 million on state education programs, and an additional $281 million on public school building rehabilitation and construction.[1] This new education spending proposal comes just a few years after the record amount of Thornton Commission money was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 2002, which was supposed to provide more than a billion additional dollars to Maryland’s 24 public school districts.[2] K-12 education spending continues to be an emotional subject in Maryland, especially because it usually is the largest single budget item in county budgets, and one of the top spending items in the state budget. In the debate over ever-increasing education spending, a legitimate question emerges: has education spending been shortchanged over the past few decades? Is it being shortchanged now? The best way to evaluate this question is to look at the history of education spending in Maryland, and on average in the United States. [1] Liz F. Kay, “Ehrlich Announces Additional Education Dollars: Spending Increases to Fund Various Initiatives, Public School Construction,” Baltimore Sun, January 5, 2006. [2] This law is known as the “Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act.” Read More »

It's Time For Merit Pay in Maryland Schools

Maryland Policy Report No. 2005-5

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Thursday, December 08, 2005
In September 2005, the Governor’s Commission on Quality Education in Maryland released its 30 recommendations for revamping PK-12 education in the state. Topping the list is a call to “Develop a new compensation system for teachers and principals.” This recommendation has substantial promise to improve the way the state’s faculty and administrators are paid. Read More »

The Steele Commission Report: A Lost Opportunity To Debate Vouchers In Maryland

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Wednesday, September 14, 2005
On September 14, 2005, the Governor’s Commission on Quality Education in Maryland, dubbed the “Steele Commission” because of its chairman, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, released its final report—the culmination of a year-long investigation of Maryland’s K-12 public schools. While there are a number of both positive and troubling recommendations, the report fails to even mention school vouchers as a way to improve the educational prospects of children trapped in too many failing Maryland schools. Read More »

Top Five Myths of School Vouchers and Why They Should Not Impede Education Reform in Maryland

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Monday, September 12, 2005
In many regards, public education in Maryland is a broken system in that it does not work well for many children living in the Old Line State. Recent press on the state of education in Maryland’s public schools clearly shows this. Read More »

Why Strong Work Requirements are Important in Maryland's Welfare System

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., Peter Kazanjian Law
Published on Monday, August 01, 2005
Compared to other states in the mid-Atlantic region, Maryland has done comparatively well in reducing welfare caseloads over the past several years. The welfare system in Maryland, however, can and should be improved. This analysis looks at the issue of why work requirements should be directly tied to welfare receipt, and how Maryland’s program can be strengthened through strong work requirements. Read More »

Baltimore City Should Open its Doors to Charter Schools

Originally Published in The Washington Times

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Baltimore City’s perennially problematic public school system is once again crying poverty, this time, over required funding of the new charter schools scheduled to open this fall in Baltimore. On May 6, 2005, the Maryland State Board of Education ruled that students in charter schools must have a per pupil funding amount equal to what other local public school children receive. Therefore, if students leave the traditional public schools and start attending a charter school in Baltimore, nearly $11,000 will accompany each student to the new public charter school. Read More »

How Public Policy Can Best Help Ameliorate Poverty

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Debates currently rage in Washington, D.C. and in state capitals nationwide on ways public policy can best ameliorate poverty in America. The U.S. Congress is deliberating over how the nation’s welfare law should be reauthorized, and states are grappling with how they should tailor welfare to meet the particular needs of their people. Read More »

Improving the Social Safety Net in the Old Line State

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Over the past several years, the nation’s welfare system has experienced a dramatic overhaul as the federal government, in 1996, replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. In the process of reform, states were given a great deal of freedom to custom tailor their own welfare policy changes within their jurisdictions, subject to certain limits. Read More »

Dollars to the Classroom or Dollars to the Administration?

By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Published on Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Over the past many years, public elementary and secondary education spending in Maryland and nationwide has been steadily increasing. In the 2001– 02 academic year, for example, Maryland’s 24 county school districts spent over $7 billion on current-year operations. While most of this spending was related directly to classroom instruction, an alarming trend has emerged whereby an increasing share of budgetary growth has been related to central administration and other non-instructional uses. Read More »