Published on Friday, December 10, 2010

The Great Evacuation of Baltimore began shortly after World War II and continued for six decades: between 1950 and 2008, its population fell from 950,000 to 637,000. Concurrently, the city population not only shrank, but also became poorer. In 1950, the median family income of Baltimoreans was seven percent above the U.S. figure; by the 2000 census, the median household income1 for city residents was 28 percent below the national median. We all know - or think we know - why this happened. The usual narrative involves the following elements: racial bias that caused whites to flee an increasingly diverse urban population; our ecologically unfortunate preference for suburban lawns and auto travel over dense city neighborhoods and public transit (or walking); and the transition from a manufacturing- to a service-based economy that doomed America's old industrial cities to inevitable decline. In Baltimore, however, we often console ourselves with stories about the heroic political figures who staved off complete disaster of, say, Detroitian proportions, with a downtown redevelopment strategy2 that has made the Inner Harbor a tourist attraction and, in recent years, slowed population losses to a mere trickle (though not job losses: from 2002 to 2008, average annual employment in the city fell by over 30,000). Note: This essay will appear in the forthcoming inaugural edition of the Maryland Journal.

Published on Wednesday, October 13, 2010

With midterm elections and a gubernatorial race just weeks away, the Maryland Public Policy Institute has a second edition of “The Annapolis Report,” a review of the state’s 2010 legislative session.

Published on Wednesday, September 08, 2010

The Maryland Electricity Market - A Primer," by Maryland Public Policy Institute senior fellow Thomas Firey, reviews in detail the 1999 decision to deregulate electricity generation in Maryland and the 2006 political response to news that Baltimore Gas and Electric planned to raise rates 72 percent. The primer also describes the history of electricity regulation and the economics of both regulation and deregulation. The paper concludes with suggestions to state policymakers about future electricity policy.

Published on Wednesday, August 22, 2007

BALTIMORE - A wall will eventually sag or crumble if too many blocks are missing. The same thing can happen to a child’s education when he or she lacks too many skills. Because so many taxpayer-funded schools are not providing adequate instruction to children, parents must look elsewhere to help fill the gaps. This situation drives growth in the supplemental education market every year. The demand stems both from federal requirements and parents. No Child Left Behind requires that Title I schools not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) provide tutoring to needy students. In spite of the NCLB mandate, many more children need supplemental education than receive it. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said states and school districts need to vastly improve how they advertise tutoring information to parents in an August 2006 report. Contracting and services mismanagement, for example, led to only 19 percent of eligible students in the 2004-2005 school year receiving extra help. In 2007, 2.3 million students were eligible for services. Many issues can contribute to students not using services, including living in rural or dangerous areas without many tutor choices, a lack of information about them and language barriers.

Published on Monday, March 12, 2007

In the 2007 Maryland state legislative session, a bipartisan coalition of legislators has introduced the Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers, or BOAST tax credit proposal. This initiative is modeled after a similar tax credit program in Pennsylvania that has strong bipartisan support there. The legislation (Senate Bill 265) is sponsored by State Senator James E. DeGrange, Sr., a Democrat from District 32 (Anne Arundel County) and 17 co-sponsors. In the House of Delegates, the bill is sponsored by Delegate James E. Proctor Jr., a Democrat from District 27A (Calvert and Prince George’s counties) and 57 co-sponsors.The BOAST tax credit proposal would provide up to $25 million in partial tax credits to Maryland businesses that make contributions to support education. Specifically, the bill would allow businesses to make up to $15 million in contributions to non-profit organizations that fund tuition scholarships to non-public schools. Businesses would also be allowed to contribute up to $10 million to organizations that fund initiatives to improve public education. Businesses participating in the BOAST tax credit program would be able to receive a partial tax credit (worth 75 percent of the donation) for qualifying contributions.

Published on Thursday, July 27, 2006

Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley announced recently in his gubernatorial campaign that he will consider buying prescription drugs from Canada and abroad as a way to reduce health care costs for Marylanders. But that policy can potentially harm both consumers and the economics of drug creation and sale in the United States. Those unsolicited and poorly worded offers for Cialis and Viagra in our e-mail inboxes say it all. Drug re-importation is one situation where the invisible hand will not solve the problem. The key prefix is the “re-” in reimportation. The United States develops, creates and produces the bulk of the world’s drugs. Foreign governments legally purchase drugs from American companies at discount prices and then set their own prices at home (translation: price controls). Were Maryland to allow drug re-importation, American firms would continue to assume the worldwide burden of drug research and development but at a profit margin that did not take those efforts into account.

Published on Monday, July 10, 2006

BALTIMORE - Thousands of miles away in Arizona, a small but significant program hatched here in Maryland became law in June. But Maryland’s 11,500 foster care children, 7,000 of whom are in Baltimore City, have yet to benefit from this program designed by The Maryland Public Policy Institute. Gov. Janet Napolitano, Democrat, personally signed into law a first-in-the-nation targeted school choice program for foster care children. Arizona’s $2.5 million scholarship grant program offers foster children scholarships worth up to $5,000 for tuition. Any child who has or is placed in the foster care system is eligible, and the students can use the scholarship to attend private schools.

Published on Thursday, June 22, 2006

BALTIMORE - About five years ago, Baltimore’s emergency rooms started overflowing. The city’s emergency rooms are not alone. In 2003, the General Accounting Office reported that ERs throughout the state and nation are overcrowded. But Maryland’s ERs force patients to wait longer than most in the country. Fortunately, two city departments and area hospitals are trying to do something about it. Around the state, more backup units have been asked to respond to medical emergencies while other ambulances idle until hospital beds become available. This strain on Baltimore City Fire Department’s emergency medical services prompted William J. Goodwin Jr., the city fire chief, to ask area hospitals for help. In just over a month, the city and its hospitals have set a fine example of what regional cooperation can do to address a serious problem that affects all levels of government and social services. “We took a proactive approach to a growing national problem,” said Goodwin.

Published on Friday, June 02, 2006

BALTIMORE - On June 5, 2006, the Howard County Council will vote on a bill to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars. If the Robey-Ulman bill is passed, Howard County will join Prince George’s, Montgomery and Talbot Counties in legislating smoke-free establishments. Yet for Marylanders who detest cigarette smoke for health or personal reasons and for Marylanders who savor the experience of lighting up a cigarette, state and county tobacco policies are contradictory and not altogether helpful.

Published on Thursday, May 18, 2006

BALTIMORE - The ongoing and systemic failure of Baltimore City’s special-education system in public schools is an extreme but very real example of what happens when a public school district is allowed to underserve its students for decades. Under state management since summer of 2005, the city’s special education services have been ordered to provide 90,000 hours of makeup services from 2005 on top of what is due children in 2006. A state report also showed that 25 percent of city high school seniors in special education received diplomas last spring without meeting graduation requirements. Baltimore City’s school system is an excellent example of a situation where both mainstream and special-education students would benefit greatly from the opportunity to take their per-pupil money elsewhere to a better school.