Published on Monday, April 04, 2011

How much should a college education cost?  According to the College Board, the average cost of earning a degree at a private, 4-year university is now more than $100,000.  If tuition prices continue to rise as quickly as they did during the past decade, a college degree will cost more than $200,000 by the time today’s third-graders are applying.  That price tag is enough to cause most parents to break into a sweat.

Published on Thursday, September 23, 2010

High school students must feel like Marty McFly. In the classic 1980s movie "Back to the Future," Michael J. Fox portrays a teenager who uses a time machine to travel back to 1955. During his journey, Marty sees what it was like to attend school with his parents' generation. Teenagers heading back to school this fall must also feel like they're traveling back in time - leaving the high-tech world of 2010 to return to schools that have remained largely unchanged since the 1950s.

Published on Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Technological innovations are improving and transforming most areas of American life. Yet our schools continue to be one area that has resisted transformation, operating more or less as they did 150 years ago. This will soon change.

Published on Monday, March 01, 2010

Governor Martin O'Malley's "Maryland's Preschool for All Business Plan," created in December 2009, intends to "outline the direction for implementing the [universal preschool] program during the second decade of the 2000s." The initiative, like many liberal initiatives of its kind, is based on the assumption of a "multiplier effect" -- that universal preschool will better prepare young students for grades K-12 and provide such spillover benefits as reduced grade retention, special education enrollments, teen pregnancy, and criminal arrests, while increasing high school graduation and employment rates.

Published on Friday, May 01, 2009

Summer school scholarships are a key way to improve student learning for low-income Baltimore City students, according to a new study by Dan Lips, a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute.

Published on Monday, February 02, 2009

Maryland provides tax benefits and incentives to encourage families to save for their children's higher education.[1] The state operates two college savings vehicles: a Prepaid College Trust and a College Investment Plan. Under state law, families can claim a tax deduction worth up to $2,500 per beneficiary for contributions made into either savings plan for their children. Families with more than one child can claim a state tax deduction worth up to $2,500 for each child's contribution. Under federal law, interest earned in either account is not subject to tax if spent on eligible expenditures for higher education. In all, Maryland's Prepaid College Trust and College Investment Plan had combined assets of nearly $2 billion for more than 110,000 beneficiaries in 2007.[2] The plans received $352 million in contributions in FY 2007.[3] The popularity of these plans demonstrates Maryland families' commitment to saving for their children's postsecondary education. However, Maryland families should question why similar benefits and incentives are not provided for expenses related to a child's primary and secondary education. Often, during the K-12 education years many children most need, but cannot afford, the quality educational opportunities that will put them on the track to graduate high school and pursue higher education. Maryland could become the first state in the country to offer a state tax benefit for contributions made to Coverdell Education Savings Accounts (ESAs).[4] Under federal law, families can contribute after-tax dollars to Coverdell ESA, where invested funds earn interest tax-free if they are spent on eligible K-12 or higher education savings accounts. Annual contributions are limited to $2,000 per account. Offering Maryland taxpayers a $2,000 state income tax deduction for contributions made into a child's Coverdell ESA would give families more flexibility, helping to ensure that their children receive a quality education. To help low-income children participate, the tax benefit could be structured to encourage individuals and businesses to make charitable contributions into disadvantaged children's Coverdell ESAs. A state tax deduction for contributions into Coverdell ESAs for K-12 and higher education saving would be a step toward giving families greater power in education. Families could use funds saved in their children's Coverdell ESAs for a range of education expenses, including: private school tuition, academic tutoring, supplemental services, transportation, books and educational supplies, special needs services, and computer technology. [5] This reform should be complemented with other educational options to give families greater ability to secure for their children a quality primary, secondary, and postsecondary education. [1] For information on the College Savings Plans of Maryland, visit: www.collegesavingsmd.org. [2] College Savings Plans of Maryland, "2007 Summary Annual Report," June 30, 2007, at: http://65.36.246.229/cspmd/documents/CSPMD_current_annual_report_summary.pdf (September 7, 2008).[3] Ibid.[4] The author has written about this policy recommendation in 2008 in a paper for the Goldwater Institute, see: Dan Lips, "Saving for School: How Arizona Could Help Families Save for Their Children's K-12 and College Educations," April 15, 2008.[5] For more information, see: Internal Revenue Service, "Tax Benefits for Education: Coverdell Education Savings Accounts," U.S. Department of the Treasury, Publication 970, 2007, at: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch07.html#d0e7049 (September 7, 2008).

Published on Monday, September 22, 2008

On May 17, 2008, 300 students from across Maryland sought to be among the first 80 students to enroll in the SEED School of Maryland, a statewide college preparatory academy set to open in Baltimore in August 2008.[1] The lucky students were drawn through a lottery. The Baltimore Sun reported that parents cried with joy when their children's number was called. Families with unlucky children whose numbers were not called were left shedding tears of disappointment. "It was a long shot...but it was a chance we had to take," explained Maurice Chandler, who son was seen crying when he was not chosen.[2] This scene is evidence of the crisis in Baltimore City's public schools, where a child's opportunity to attend a safe and effective school is left to chance. For more than a decade, state and local policymakers have sought to improve children's opportunities by reforming the city's beleaguered public school system. Those reforms have largely failed. [1] Tanika White, "Parents, kids pin their hopes on one white orb in boarding school lottery," Baltimore Sun, May 18, 2008. [2] Ibid.

Published on Friday, August 25, 2006

Bad news just keeps coming for Baltimore City public schools. The city’s high-school graduation rate has slipped below 40 percent -- worse than every city in America except Detroit. State education officials recently labeled six Baltimore City public schools as “persistently dangerous.” Some 22,000 students languish in schools that have failed state benchmarks for six or more years. Unfortunately, Maryland state lawmakers appear unwilling to reform even the worst public schools in Baltimore City. During the last legislative session, Gov. Robert Ehrlich proposed a state takeover of 11 chronically failing public schools. The General Assembly not only approved a measure to delay changes for one year, it overrode Gov. Ehrlich’s veto of the legislation. Yet change could come to city schools if the Bush administration and some in Congress have their way. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings recently joined lawmakers on Capitol Hill to unveil a plan to give private-school scholarships to disadvantaged students in some of the country’s lowest-performing public schools. The Opportunity Scholarship Initiative would provide $100 million in grants to cities such as Baltimore with a high density of failing schools. The grants would be used to give low-income public-school students scholarships to attend private school or intensive after-school tutoring programs. Only students in the lowest-performing public schools would be eligible. In Baltimore, that would include more than 40 schools, attended by more than a quarter of the city’s public-school students.

Published on Tuesday, October 11, 2005

There are an estimated 523,000 foster care children in the U.S. Maryland has approximately 11,500 foster care children, 7,000 of whom are in Baltimore City. This paper is based on the understanding that these children require specially tailored education and assistance to help wit the difficult transition from youth to adulthood. Unlike their peers in traditional families, foster children often do not have an adequate safety net or social network. They are unable to rely on parents and other relatives for support during the school years and to facilitate a smooth transition out of the home and into adulthood.

Published on Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Baltimore City’s public school system is in crisis. Academically, the school system fails on any number of measures. The city’s graduation rate is barely above 50 percent and students continually lag well behind state averages on standardized tests. Adding to these problems is the school system’s current fiscal crisis, created by years of fiscal mismanagement that has now caused multimillion dollar budget deficits. Despite persistent problems in the city’s public schools, city officials continue to oppose studentcentered, parent-directed school choice reform proposals such as school vouchers. Such voucher programs have proven successful in other cities, such as Milwaukee and Cleveland, which have seen test scores and parental satisfaction climb. Washington D.C. was the most recent city to launch a school voucher program. More than a thousand low-income students were awarded vouchers for the fall of 2004. This paper explores how Baltimore could enact a similar school voucher program. It examines the current state of the Baltimore City school system and considers other cities’ experiences with vouchers.