Maintenance Of Effort

SALISBURY -- Being the first doesn't necessarily mean being the best, as Wicomico County's Board of Education learned this year.Caught in a fiscal crunch not of its own making, Wicomico this year became the first Maryland county to lose its "maintenance of effort" money for its schools, sacrificing almost a million dollars in state funding after it was unable to increase its education budget."

A House committee has substantially weakened a proposal by county governments aimed at giving them greater control over how much money is spent each year on public schools.By a 21-1 vote, the House Ways & Means Committee approved legislation reforming the state's "maintenance of effort" law that requires counties to spend as much per pupil as they did the year before.But the rewritten bill they approved strips a key change sought by county governments -- the authority for counties with growing school populations to lower per-pupil expenditures for new students by 40 percent.

Squaring off in their final debate before Tuesday's primary, the five candidates for Howard County school board struggled last night to distinguish themselves and their positions as they talked about a gamut of issues from education funding to state exams.While the candidates tended to break little new ground in the two-hour session, they occasionally revealed previously unheard positions on specific matters -- particularly on the state's requirements for education funding.The five candidates are seeking to replace school board Chairwoman Susan Cook, who has decided not to seek re-election.

AS A PUBLIC SERVICE, here's a glossary to help follow the confusing efforts in Annapolis to weaken a law that guarantees steady local funding for education.Irony: County executives and their supporters in the legislature fighting to weaken the 10-year-old law that ensures "maintenance of effort" on education spending even as a clamor is heard across Maryland that more money, not less, should be spent on schools.Chutzpah: When county leaders argue that they can't afford to keep up with school enrollment growth because of a flat tax base, even though they argued a few months ago that the state of Maryland should do that very thing.

Howard County government might not increase education funding enough to meet state requirements next year, an unprecedented move that would force the school system to cut up to $10 million from its proposed operating budget, Superintendent Michael E. Hickey said last night.Dr. Hickey's announcement came just moments after the county school board unanimously reappointed him to a fourth four-year term.With the reappointment, board members honored a promise they made last year when Dr. Hickey turned down the superintendency of a North Carolina school system to stay in Howard.

"TO ENSURE additional state aid does not result in reductions in local support, existing 'maintenance of effort' requirements to fund education should continue." So concluded a report, not written in the halcyon days of Maryland's 1980s real estate boom, but just two years ago. As recently as January 1994, the Governor's Commission on School Funding understood that a strong local commitment to education funding is in Maryland's long-term interest.Unfortunately, many county leaders and state legislators are now moving at break-neck speed to undercut the state's "maintenance of effort" law. Faced with school enrollments that are growing faster than property tax bases, many counties are indeed struggling to fund their share of education.

LAST FALL, county leaders in Maryland complained that Gov. Parris N. Glendening was poised to cut the income tax rate to make himself look good to voters at their expense. They worried this would mean less state aid and higher local taxes. But the governor listened to them and in his budget increased both local aid and education aid, even as he was laying off hundreds of state employees and cutting other programs.But that's not enough for the counties, which are trying to reduce projected future spending on schools by rolling back the state's 10-year-old "maintenance of effort" law. This statute now requires jurisdictions to spend at least as much per pupil as they spent the year before.

Describing next year's financial outlook as dominated by "certain growth, uncertain revenues," Howard County schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey last night formally presented his proposed $241.9 million operating budget to the county school board.While the school system knows it will be opening three new schools because of increased enrollment, the possibility of additional federal, state and local cuts make revenue projections for next year's budget "the most uncertain" of his 12 years as superintendent in Howard, Dr. Hickey said.

As the Senate tackles welfare reform in earnest it is clear that, whatever the outcome, "welfare as we know it" is no longer an option. A Republican bill, delayed several weeks while Majority Leader Robert Dole tried to quell dissension within his ranks, is now on the floor, while Democratic senators are offering their own alternative.Meanwhile, conservative Republicans are mounting another effort to deny cash benefits to unmarried teen-age mothers and to prevent benefit increases to welfare recipients who have more children.