Quality Education

Too much of the public is missing from public education. As a people, we recognize the economic value of education, but we under-invest in our schools, both financially and in terms of civic capital. With America's students and schools facing unprecedented needs, and education budgets under enormous pressure, it is time to drastically ramp up civic investment in public education. Our public school system - one of the great achievements of American democracy - is not just a service for the public to consume.

Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele is scheduled to visit two schools in Prince George's County -- Marlton Elementary School in Upper Marlboro on Wednesday and Nicholas Orem Middle School in Hyattsville on Thursday -- to discuss the Governor's Commission on Quality Education in Maryland. As commission chair, Steele visits schools across the state, collecting information for the panel's work and meeting with educators, parents, administrators, students and community leaders. Steele plans to visit at least one school in every county, as well as in Baltimore City, to complete his review.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has announced he will sign an executive order on Monday in Annapolis to create the Governor's Commission on Quality Education in Maryland. He said he plans to appoint Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele to chair the panel. The purpose of the commission is to examine issues critical to the academic achievement for all students in Maryland, the governor's office said. The commission's inaugural meeting is planned after the signing of the executive order.

Schrader appointed to governor's panel on quality education State Sen. Sandra B. Schrader, a Howard Republican, has been appointed to serve on the Governor's Commission on Quality Education in Maryland. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. signed an executive order last month creating the commission, and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele was named its chairman. The commission includes four subcommittees: Teacher/Principal Accountability and Growth; Schools and Community Linkages; Global Best -- Practices in Education; and School Readiness and Early Childhood Programs.

In reference to "Alonso wouldn't suspend bullies" (May 4), Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso should be reminded the classroom is no place to permit the presence of distracting bullying students at the expense of the other students being short-changed in their pursuit of a quality education. In my opinion, these disturbing bullies should definitely be withdrawn and placed in another facility where they are required to learn respect for others, self-discipline and a structured life along with an appropriate academic curriculum.

PHILADELPHIA -- Attempting to calm the national furor over its efforts to promote racial and gender diversity on campus, a Philadelphia-based agency that accredits colleges and universities voted yesterday to soften its controversial diversity standards.Officials of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, which accredits about 500 colleges in the Mid-Atlantic region, said they hoped the revised standards would mollify U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other critics.

A group of Howard County residents, calling themselves Parents for Quality Education, have gotten it wrong when they criticize the county's family life program. PQE parents are so fearful that their children will be taught about sex in school, they have called in outside help to plot strategy on ways to scuttle the school program.Jim Sedlak, director of the New York-based Stop Planned Parenthood, spoke with PQE parents not long ago and accused Planned Parenthood of everything from benefiting financially from condom sales to spreading secular humanism in the classroom.

World-renowned surgeon Benjamin Carson has been named president of the board overseeing the East Baltimore Community School Inc.--the educational institution spurred by the revitalization of the city's Middle East community, including a new elementary/middle school that will anchor the community. The appointment of Carson, director of the pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, was announced by Hopkins on Monday.  He started his new post effective Dec. 1, and took over for David Nichols, former vice dean for education at Hopkins' School of Medicine.

High school teacher Barbara Dandridge left education more than five years ago to find ways to improve it.The Howard County foreign language teacher and administrator got tired of seeing schools that were failing to educate their students.She saw some schools that were teaching students well and others that weren't. She ran into wonderful teachers as well as really bad ones."Students should be able to go from one school to another and get the same quality education," said Dr. Dandridge, who taught Oakland Mills High School and became an assistant principal at Atholton and Mount Hebron.