Improving Schools

IN DECIDING not to run for re-election in 1996, Howard County school board Chairwoman Susan Cook makes an important observation. The issues facing county schools are too important to be overshadowed by divisive election-year politics.Already this school year, the board has had to announce the layoff of 15 central administration employees. In budgeting for next school year, it must consider the warning of County Executive Charles I. Ecker that the school system can only expect about a 3 percent increase in its $230 million budget to handle 1,800 additional students and three new schools.

A dozen Baltimore schools cashed in on their improved test scores yesterday, capturing more than $580,000 in state award money - the most of any system in Maryland. "It's a good day for Baltimore," said Betty Morgan, the city school system's chief academic officer. "I think this validates the hard work and the changes that are occurring in the Baltimore schools." A total of $2.75 million was awarded yesterday to 55 of Maryland's most improved elementary and middle schools. Another 193 schools were honored for their progress with certificates in a ceremony at Martin's Eastwind in Rossville.

It was an ironic spending proposal, following a year in which Carroll educators, like their counterparts at the national and state levels, talked of reform and unveiled a series of measures aimed at improving schools.But because the national, state and regional economies are under siege, the $110.3 million budget unanimously approved last week by the county Board of Education places improvements to Carroll's classrooms on hold."We believe this is simply a year to maintain the status quo anddo the best we can because we recognize what the economy is," said Superintendent R. Edward Shilling.

Building an elementary school in White Marsh and renovating several middle schools top the Baltimore County system's construction priorities in the coming fiscal year, according to a preliminary budget discussed at a school board work session last night. Board members discussed allocating money for construction and renovation as well as replacing roofs, windows and boilers at several county schools. On Oct.

When it comes to improving schools, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and mayoral candidate Mary Pat Clarke want the same things for Baltimore's children: safer corridors and the kind of student achievement that a $647 million budget should produce.But they differ dramatically about how to get those results. It's a big-picture issue: How much power, how much money and what role in education should be assigned to the people who can deliver the goods to children -- principals, teachers and parents?Mr. Schmoke's school administration gives them a say in the spending of a fraction of the tax dollars earmarked for running schools.

Since he assumed office, Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's top priority has been improving the city's beleaguered education system.But five years into Mr. Schmoke's tenure, public confidence in NTC Baltimore's school system may be at a low point -- oddly, in part, because the mayor insists on playing a prominent role in shaping school policy.Mostly, mayoral interest in public education is a good thing. It brings money, awareness and private support -- all of which is true in Baltimore.But Mr. Schmoke's active role in public education in Baltimore has in several cases embarrassed the people charged with running the system, the school board and the superintendent.

Maryland ranks 30th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the well-being of its children, according to an annual survey by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.The ranking is little changed from last year, when the state ranked 31st.Nationally, the foundation's eighth annual "KIDS COUNT Data Book," which is being released today, notes with alarm that 15 percent of America's children live with parents who are high school dropouts and 9.8 percent live in neighborhoods where more than a quarter of their teen-age neighbors dropped out of high school.

At 58 years old, Joan Sweet has spent her whole life living in the suburbs. When her husband is transferred in the next few years from the military base of Fort Monmouth, N.J., to Aberdeen Proving Ground, he'll be looking for a quick commute to work. So why might the couple move to Baltimore? Sweet doesn't know, really. But there she was yesterday, touring the city's neighborhoods and picking up information about home styles and prices. "I've never lived in a city, so I'm not sure how I'd like it," she said.

In a bid to halt Baltimore's pioneering "Tesseract" experiment in school privatization, the teachers' union has challenged the legality of a city contract with a Minneapolis company to operate nine public schools.In its suit, the union contends that Baltimore's contract with Education Alternatives Inc. (EAI), now in its second year, violates charter requirements that the city maintain control of public schools.The lawsuit, filed this week in city Circuit Court, also claims that the five-year privatization venture discriminates against thousands of students because "Tesseract" schools receive more city money per pupil than do most other public schools in the city.

It didn't take long for Carroll educators to outline the need for more money in next year's school budget.In a meeting with the County Commissioners, Superintendent R. Edward Shilling said the extra money -- a 10 percent or $10 million spending increase -- was needed to hire teachers to accommodate growth and staff two new elementary schools, make classroom improvements and maintain competitive salaries.And while staffing the two new schools -- Spring Garden in Hampstead and Piney Ridge in Eldersburg -- was a priority in the proposed $110.