School Funding

Abbey G. Hairston, who represented ousted executive director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. in his suit against the NAACP, will be Baltimore's lead counsel in its planned school funding lawsuit against the state.Ms. Hairston, a newly named partner in the Silver Spring law firm Alexander, Gephardt, Aponte and Marks, served as an attorney for the Palm Beach (Fla.) County school board from 1983 to 1993.Senior partner Koteles Alexander will assist her. He was instrumental in getting former Prince George's County State's Attorney Alexander Williams Jr. confirmed to a federal judgeship this year, despite an unfavorable rating by an American Bar Association committee.

Educators, parents, business leaders and others were told to gear up for a tough fight for public school funding and coached on how to do so during an education conference yesterday at the University of Maryland Baltimore County."

The County Commissioners' second order of business this morning will be to discuss -- read rescind -- a 16 percent increase in the local income tax, revenue that had been earmarked for school construction through 2001.Commissioners W. Benjamin Brown and Richard T. Yates said they would vote today to repeal the tax increase June 30. That move would restore the so-called piggyback tax rate to 50 percent of a person's state income tax liability.Yates, who opposed the increase when it was approved in May 1995, said he would second Brown's motion today to rescind the increase if Commissioner Donald I. Dell did not do it first.

Bolstered by the cheers of more than 1,000 supporters, the leaders of one of Baltimore's most powerful grass-roots organizations sent a blunt message yesterday to the city's General Assembly delegation:Bring home a bill from Annapolis next year that eliminates statewide inequities in school funding or start looking for a new job."We have our eyes on the city delegation, and our vision is good, and our memory is eternal," warned the Rev. Curtis Jones, co-chair of BUILD -- Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development -- at its 1991 meeting at the Convention Center.

WASHINGTON -- The federal share of local school funding is continuing a decade-long drop, leaving Maryland and the other states and local communities to pick up more costs, said a report released yesterday by the National Education Association.Maryland fell below the national average in the federal share of public education costs, but above the average in teacher salaries and the amount spent per pupil."Education reform is at risk as the dollar crunch hits home," said NEA President Keith Geiger.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court cleared the way yesterday for a new generation of legal attacks on states' public school financing systems -- claims that those systems are racially discriminatory.In a brief order, without explanation, the court turned down appeals by Pennsylvania's governor, Tom Ridge, legislative leaders and state education officials seeking to block a lawsuit by the city of Philadelphia, its school district, and children and parents in the city.That suit, which has not gone to trial, says that school funding formulas provide significantly more money to districts that have a high proportion of white students than for those where minorities are more populous.

A forum on school funding will be conducted from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Wilde Lake High School, at River Hill on Route 108 in Clarksville. The forum will focus on balancing school needs and fiscal responsibility. County Executive Charles I. Ecker, school board chairwoman Susan Cook and Superintendent Michael E. Hickey will respond to questions from 9:15 a.m. to 10:20 a.m.Two sessions then will run concurrently, each to be held twice, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. and from 11:35 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The topics will be:* "Education funding and the county budget," featuring Dr. Sydney Cousin, the system's associate superintendent for finance and operations, and Ray Wacks, county budget administrator.

More than 200 parents, students and education advocates gathered at Fort Worthington Elementary in Baltimore last night to celebrate their victory in fighting for school funding. The Baltimore Education Coalition, a network of more than 30 advocacy groups, was formed this winter in response to proposed changes in the state's funding formulas that would have disproportionately hurt schools in the city and Prince George's County. The coalition had planned a rally in Annapolis for last night.

State legislators have paved the way for reductions in local school budgets, and some school officials are bracing for deep cuts.Howard County Superintendent Michael E. Hickey said yesterday that County Executive Charles I. Ecker has told him that $8 million -- earmarked for teacher pay raises -- would be cut if the General Assembly suspended a requirement that localities boost school funding to keep pace with rising enrollments.The legislature did just that earlier this week, approving a one-year suspension of the school funding formula in an amendment to the $11.6 billion budget package.

Howard County will ask the state to fund at least $20 million in school construction for the fiscal year starting next July -- nearly $14 million more than the county received this year.That figure came out of an afternoon meeting convened by Howard County Council members, state delegates and county school board members to reach a consensus on school funding priorities before the start of the legislative session in Annapolis.Last year, the state funded $6.2 million for Howard school construction, addition and renovation projects -- a smaller-than-expected portion of the $28 million capital budget.