Public Education

California Gov. Jerry Brown has done a lot to finally balance his state's budget, but his greatest challenge still lies ahead ("Jerry Brown: A survivor at the top of his game," Feb. 3). In 1978, during Mr. Brown's first term as governor, he helped pass Proposition 13, a property tax cap that has mostly benefited large corporations at the expense of California's once elite education system. Since the passage of Proposition 13, California schools have gone from the best in the country to 49th in education spending.

Carroll Values Education, a nonpartisan community group created by parents to advocate on behalf of Carroll County's children and public education system, will host its first meeting Monday, March 25, at Winters Mill High School, 560 Gorsuch Road in Westminster. The 7 p.m. meeting is free and open to the public. Contact group founder Bob Lord at 410-861-0131 or email CarrollValuesEducation@gmail.com . For information about the group, go to http://www.facebook.com/CarrollValuesEducation or http://www.carrollvalueseducation.wordpress.com.

Before the recent election, I was approached by an educated and concerned friend of above average income who said he was going to vote for the Republican candidates.I acknowledged that Republicans on occasion have what I believe to be the preferable position on issues facing our state and country, but wondered what had motivated his decision. The reply was that he was fed up with government waste and high taxes.I asked him what waste did he have in mind. The response was, ''Let's start with all the money wasted on public schools in the city.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has done a lot to finally balance his state's budget, but his greatest challenge still lies ahead ("Jerry Brown: A survivor at the top of his game," Feb. 3). In 1978, during Mr. Brown's first term as governor, he helped pass Proposition 13, a property tax cap that has mostly benefited large corporations at the expense of California's once elite education system. Since the passage of Proposition 13, California schools have gone from the best in the country to 49th in education spending.

IN 1839, an angry crowd attacked a Baltimore Carmelite convent for three days.They had been roused to action by the preaching and publications of Robert Breckenridge and Andrew B. Cross, both virulent anti-Catholics whose writings on the topic read like hysterical conspiracy theories and outlandish fantasies.While anti-Catholicism, like racism and anti-Semitism, is a well-known part of this country's history, less is known about how such bigoted views were tied to the enactment of laws that affect every American today.

THIS MONTH marks the 200th birthday of Horace Mann, who will be recognized by a few old-timers as the father of the public school.Mann's mission in the mid-19th century was to establish a common school in every community in the United States. He succeeded, but were he around to celebrate his bicentennial, he might laugh one minute and cry the next.On the one hand, public schools serve 90 percent of Americans enrolled in schools, certainly a record to be proud of. On the other hand, Mann's "invention" is under attack at every turn.

AFTER A tongue-lashing from a state legislator upset about the quality of the schools, Baltimore County Superintendent Joe A. Hairston stumbled shell-shocked out of the lawmaker's Annapolis office and took a deep breath. "You think a superintendent's job is easy?" Hairston grimaced. It most certainly is not, and he isn't the only local superintendent feeling the heat. Prince George's County schools chief Iris T. Metts announced recently that she would not ask the school board to renew her contract.

The economic downturn squeezing public education funding in Maryland has had a similar effect on the state's private and parochial schools, whose ability to help needy students with tuition costs has fallen victim to depressed endowments and a precipitous drop in private donations. In the Baltimore Archdiocese, for example, where Catholic schools serve more than 33,000 students, enrollments declined by 5 percent in 2008 - twice the rate of the previous five years. Officials say job losses have left many parents unable to afford annual tuition.

A NUN with a long history of involvement in private religious education takes over this week as the new executive director of one of Baltimore's primary advocates for public education, the Fund for Educational Excellence.Sister Rosemarie T. Nassif, SSND, who resigned last summer after four sometimes stormy years as president of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, thinks her career move is perfectly logical. "I'm an advocate of education, public and private," says Nassif, 55. "I've seen how education transforms people.

Maryland spends on public education like a Saudi prince in Tiffany's. According to an analysis of data from the Annual Survey of State Government Finances from the U.S. Census Bureau, all education spending accounted for 47 percent of Maryland's total revenue in 2009, the most recent year available. Health spending, which is always cited as the monster in the state budget, ate 9 percent of total revenue in 2009. By comparison, public education represented 26 percent of total revenue in 2000.

Former State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick will soon be back on the national stage, where she will host a handful of high-profile figures to discuss the future of public education. The longtime state education leader--who retired in 2011--will be launching a speaker series at Towson University on Thursday, Jan. 17 when she will interview renowned surgeon and neurologist Benjamin Carson and prominent research scientist Dr. Martha Denckla, the university announced in a release. The event, which starts at at 4 p.m. in Towson's West Village Commons, is free and open to the public.  The discussion with Carson and Denckla will focus on "How Students Learn: An Inside Look at Neuroscience," the university said, and will kick-off a six-part speaker series called Preparing for Public Education in the 21st Century: Signature Forums , a forum the university said is designed to provide a "unique opportunity for education stakeholders to interact with national experts.

My husband and I read with interest Jim Salvucci's commentary on the devaluation of education in society today ("Real work in the fake world," Jan. 8). His argument that saying academics are not part of the "real world" means they must be doing "fake work" in a "fake world" captures a sad truth about how education is perceived in our culture. We are both in our mid-70s and have spent most of our lives witnessing with some degree of horror the deterioration of our educational system.

The mass shootings in Newtown cannot stand. Our congressional leaders need to do everything in their power to provide more logical gun restrictions in our country. We have been under assault for years and - at the very, very least - the ban on assault-style rifles, etc. must be reinstated. Guns do kill people, and semiautomatic guns kill more. There also needs to be additional legal, judicial, and police-aided options available to people who know there is a troubled or dangerous person in their family or community, similar to the Baker Act in Florida (which temporarily commits people at risk of hurting themselves or others)

As the nation continues this week to deal with the grief and heartache left behind by the murder of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, let there also be a moment set aside for exultation. Let a banner be raised for the heroes of Newtown, Conn.: the educators who sprang into action to protect the young students in their charge. We don't know how many lives were saved by the alert and brave actions of the faculty and staff at Sandy Hook, but we suspect they were many.

As a new school year begins, my preparation as a principal has been punctuated by an unusual and unexpected invitation to Washington D.C. This month, I was named a Champion of Change at the White House by a program run by the Office of the President. While I am honored to be recognized in this way, and to have been thanked for my work in public education by President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, I was thrilled to learn that my hardworking teachers and staff also will be recognized.

Arthur Everett Petersen Sr., a pioneering African-American educator whose career with Baltimore County public schools spanned four decades and the era of segregated schools, died July 6 of a heart attack at his West Baltimore home. He was 94. "Arthur started in the segregated school system and was one of the real leaders in moving it toward integration. He was extremely helpful in that process," said Robert Y. Dubel, who headed Baltimore County's public schools for 16 years until retiring in 1992.

In "Private money, public good" (Feb. 14) Gadi Dechter's discussion of the "social impact bonds" proposed by the Obama administration draws attention to a market-driven solution that may address at least two challenges in the public, or social, sector. First, too many non-profit organizations lack sufficient rigor to be held accountable for results. Second, philanthropists and capital investors need a new framework for engagement in the big social problems of our time, especially in finding solutions to the crisis in public education.

When Boyse F. Mosley retired from Northwestern Senior High School in 1991, the controversial and outspoken principal told reporters that "public education as we know it is dead." Time has not dimmed Mosley's passions when asked about the fate of city schools. "I still feel that way about public education all these years later. You can change the faces and chairs, but the same outcome is repeated," said Mosley, 75, in a recent interview. Mosley remains an advocate of giving schools more autonomy and control over their programs, budgets and faculty.

As a longtime city resident and educator, I read with great interest Erica L. Green's article last week on Baltimore City's school effectiveness reviews ("City school evaluations show problems in instruction," June 19). These reviews provide an opportunity for the dedicated faculty in our schools to refine and improve their practice. The school effectiveness review process begins with a self-analysis by each school's faculty, students, parents and partners. That analysis is studied by trained observers who then spend two days in the school observing and talking with all members of the school community.

With all the windows broken, the sink ripped out and lying in the front yard, and hundreds of years of natural wear and tear, the place was a fixer-upper. "Ladies, you don't want this," they were told. But it was the first school built in the county, and the Anne Arundel Retired School Personnel Association did want it. The group bought the property in the 1960s, and more than 20 years and $239,500 in renovations later, finally invited a group of students back inside the 1720s-era building.