Make Maryland

OCEAN CITY -- Gov. Parris N. Glendening unveiled plans yesterday to rewrite the rules on education aid to promote the renovation of older schools in established neighborhoods, rather than new construction in sprawling outer suburbs.The change in the state's formula for awarding school construction money would bring millions of dollars in extra assistance to jurisdictions with large numbers of older buildings.Glendening's announcement came in a speech here to the Maryland Association of Counties in which he outlined aggressive plans to further his agenda of education, gun control, Smart Growth and opposition to smoking.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Just as Republicans have long been known as the Stupid Party, not for what they believe but for their tactical incompetence, Maryland seems to go out of its way to earn its reputation as the Stupid State.The governor has had a lot to do with that, and his dismal popularity ratings reflect Marylanders' willingness to give credit where it's due. But the General Assembly made its own contribution to the stupidity quotient last week as it struggled to find yet more ways to shoehorn state government into private lives, and especially private automobiles.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Wonderful! Kurt Schmoke, having done such a splendid job making Baltimore the thriving city it is today, is thinking about asking Marylanders to send him to the United States Senate in the year 2000. That would really get the new millennium off on a positive note.Certainly Marylanders out in the provinces will look forward with keen anticipation to expressing their opinions at the polls concerning Mr. Schmoke's proposed new career. From the Appalachian west to the Eastern Shore, which the mayor's predecessor once described in quaintly scatological terms, rural people have some well developed views about Baltimore and its current leadership.

THE 2000 GENERAL Assembly session was one of our most productive and successful in recent memory. Working together, the legislature and the Glendening-Townsend administration implemented prudent, farsighted measures that will improve the quality of life for families in every corner of Maryland. Given our incredible successes, The Sun was clearly sleeping in class when it prepared its recent "report card," which ignored some of our greatest accomplishments and distorted the results of other actions.

The television went on, and Mark Duffner started describing the video highlights from Maryland's latest disaster, a 38-0 loss at Georgia Tech.Alistair Cooke as host of "Masterpiece Theater" it wasn't.The Terps were sort of fun when they were losing 59-42 and 42-37, but that euphoria lasted only four games. The past two weeks they've been outscored by almost 17 touchdowns -- to be exact, 108-7.Their record is 0-6.Their ranking in total defense is 106 out of 106.Their next winning season might be in 2006.

DBED isn't gambling with state's resources I read with interest the editorial "Gambling blindly" (Dec. 2), which aptly summarized a host of past problems at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development that were recently brought to light by a legislative audit. Sadly, our agency's recordkeeping was lax, but we have identified and corrected all the auditor's concerns. And we have refocused the agency, streamlined operations and targeted resources to maximize productivity.

Just as the best, most thoughtful writing in a newspaper isn't always the front page story, so the most visionary environmental legislation isn't always what grabs attention in Maryland's General Assembly. That's not to say this session's big issues weren't critical: trying unsuccessfully to put the brakes on polluting power plants; trying with some success to slow the erosion of farmland and open spaces. All credit to the mainline environmental groups who fought those battles. But long-term, focusing just on making things less bad is only a slower way to hell.

Havre de Grace -- Years ago, boys and girls, before you gre up and became voters, Maryland's government wasn't as boring as it is today. It used to be much more colorful, corrupt and controversial, as well as significantly less expensive.In those not-so-long ago days, hardly a week passed without a public official being sent off to a federal corrections facility. Prosecutors and defense lawyers became celebrities, grand juries were constantly looking into the doings of politicians and the businessmen who had purchased them, and we all got to know the racketeering statutes by heart.

Make it an annual event -- the Dunbar High reunion at the Baltimore Arena. Tonight, Maryland's Keith Booth opposes Towson State's Scooter Alexander. Next year, Booth could team with Michael Lloyd against Massachusetts' Donta Bright.It's no mere fantasy. Maryland is trying to schedule UMass for a game at the Arena next season. And Lloyd, averaging 35 points at San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College, has narrowed his college choices to Maryland, Syracuse and Florida State.Two Dunbar players at Maryland?

Bigger doesn't mean better for Illinois, which has followed three outstanding guards, none taller than 6 feet 3, to a 28-0 record, 12 weeks atop the polls and a serious run at history. Major college basketball's last unbeaten was Indiana, in 1976. As convenient as it is to seize that bit of Big Ten inspiration, the stylistic muses are harder to find for the Fighting Illini, but one can be found in the same era. A recent Sports Illustrated article traces the current emphasis on perimeter play to Arizona, where Lute Olson took a three-guard attack to the 1994 Final Four, but that view is a tad shortsighted.