School Construction

An ambitious plan to secure tens of millions of dollars in state funding to fix Baltimore's dilapidated school buildings is the top priority for city officials in the General Assembly session that begins next week. The city's delegates and state senators are also united in opposition to Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to build a new juvenile jail in Baltimore. "The governor had planned on building a new juvenile jail. That kind of flies in the face of the philosophy for most of us," said Del. Curt Anderson, who chairs the city's House delegation.

The $2.4 billion building renovation and construction plan unveiled by Baltimore City schools CEO Andrés Alonso this week represents the most far-reaching and ambitious program the city has yet come up with to break out of its cycle of poverty and disinvestment. Mr. Alonso's vision over the next 10 years calls for transforming 136 of the school system's aging buildings into state-of-the-art learning centers with well-lighted, well-equipped classrooms, libraries, media centers and athletic facilities, while closing 26 obsolete or underutilized buildings and transferring their students to new locations.

The Baltimore Education Coalition will hold an event Tuesday in an effort to rally state and local leaders around a block grant bill that would help overhaul Baltimore city schools' dilapidated school buildings in 10 years. The rally, dubbed "One Night, One Bill, One Baltimore," will be held at Barclay Elementary School from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and about 200 members of school communities are expected to attend. According to the organizers, the rally is a show of solidarity to make a block grant, which will allow the city school system to address up to $1 billion of its $2.4 billion need, a priority in Annapolis next legislative session.

All of us can agree that the findings of a recent state audit of the Baltimore City school system are unacceptable. There is no excuse for wasting money, and the burden is now on the city schools leadership to fix the problems. While we monitor that progress, it's time to take a step back and consider how to move forward to benefit our kids. We cannot allow these financial missteps to sidetrack us from providing high-quality educational environments for our children. Concerns by some elected leaders about the city school system's ability to handle its finances could cloud the prospects of an important piece of legislation that will be considered by the General Assembly early next year - a measure that would allow us to begin rebuilding our aging and inadequate school buildings.

On the eve of the release of a comprehensive Baltimore school system audit, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that the lapses in financial management outlined in a draft report were "unacceptable" and called on school officials to take measures to restore confidence in the system. "My expectation is for the CEO, Dr. [Andrés] Alonso, and the school board to take corrective action immediately," Rawlings-Blake said after the city's Board of Estimates meeting. The preliminary findings of the state legislative audit, due to be released today, were obtained last week by The Baltimore Sun and described problems in managing overtime, contracts and other financial matters.

Four years ago, Maryland voters went to the polls and overwhelmingly agreed to legalize video lottery terminal facilities in Maryland - including one at a vacant swath of land in South Baltimore. After many years of delay, that decision is finally beginning to pay dividends for our schools and other critical services, with millions of dollars in gaming revenues starting to come in to state and local governments. But we have yet to fully realize the predicted boost in tax revenues, in part because in the years since voters approved slots casinos, our neighboring states have adopted changes making Maryland's casinos uncompetitive.

State and city lawmakers sharply criticized the Baltimore school system Monday after a searing audit called attention to a lack of oversight on school spending. Elected officials said they were deeply concerned by the preliminary audit report, which showed that the system failed to collect millions of dollars of debts, could not substantiate the bulk of overtime payments, and paid contracts and bills without verifying them. "There needs to be accountability in the school system," said Del. Keiffer Mitchell, a Baltimore Democrat whose two children attend city schools.

Currently there is a set of facts about Carroll County Public Schools populations that are capable of two nearly opposite interpretations. If you compare the elementary school population with the preschool population in Carroll, you find that there are 1.27 students for every preschooler. That's the highest ratio in central Maryland, and the higher number of school children compared to pre-school children leads many leaders to assume that our elementary school population will continue to decline.

So the Harford County Board of Education has voted to approve rebuilding both Havre de Grace High School and Youth's Benefit Elementary School in Fallston, two projects that have had a fair amount of public support. It seemed clear a showdown would be in the offing if one were approved and not the other. Harford County Executive David R. Craig, a lifelong Havre de Grace resident, had put the school board and others on notice that if the Havre de Grace High project weren't funded, nothing would be. Meanwhile, the formidable force of a politically awakened Fallston has appeared to be getting into fighting shape.

"Greetings from Maryland, home of the number one public school system in America for four years in a row!" That is how Gov. Martin O'Malley opened his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., last week to a roar of applause. He was referring to the state's ranking from Education Week magazine. If he had said, "Greetings from Maryland, where more than 60 percent of public school graduates who studied a 'college prep curriculum' and went on to community college needed remedial help in math" (which was the case as recently as the 2008-09 school year)