Student Population

Almost 800 more students in Howard County were suspended during the 1997-1998 school year than in the previous year, with the number of incidents increasing at every level except middle school, according to a report presented to the school board last night.The report said 2,624 students were suspended last year, compared with 1,857 during the 1996-1997 school year. There were 1,748 students suspended in 1995-96, the report said.The majority of the incidents continue to occur in the high schools and involve boys, the report said.

Brad Botwin's recent letter to the editor urges voters to overturn the Maryland Dream Act in November, but he misinforms your readers to make his case ("Dream Act a poor investment for Md.," July 31). A diverse coalition of leaders and organizations are working to defend this common-sense legislation because it reflects the value we place on education. Mr. Botwin claims that tuition costs will go up for all students if the Dream Act is sustained by voters. But the University System of Maryland has supported this legislation from the beginning, and no college president has indicated the law will require a tuition increase.

One in four American college students is over 30 years old, part of a graying student population that is offsetting a sharp drop in the number of traditional-age college students, according to a Census Bureau report released yesterday.Of the 13.2 million students enrolled at the nation's colleges and universities in 1989, about 40 percent were age 25 or older. The traditional 18-to-24-year-old group comprises about 60 percent of the student population. In the '70s, that group made up 75 percent.

On Nov. 6, Maryland voters will actually have the final say regarding the controversial issue of providing in-state college tuition for young adults who have no moral or legal right to be in Maryland. These are uninvited non-citizens who take our jobs, use our public schools, hospitals, health care, and social services with impunity from the law. Under Gov. Martin O'Malley's tutelage, Maryland voters have had to tolerate the misguided actions of state and county elected officials who have effectively turned Maryland into a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, costing taxpayers more than $1.9 billion per year.

Janet Gilbert's column "The college we visited was mighty nice … and mighty white" (June 16) is a good example of racism. The student population was judged on skin color alone. Ms. Gilbert has taught her child to see only color. The wonderful diversity of cultures such as Greek, Italian, Hungarian, English, Canadian, French, Irish, Scottish, Norwegian, Polish, Czech, Swedish and Finnish — plus the many combinations thereof — were completely ignored. Hopefully, her children will be wise enough to see beyond skin color.

Dormitory construction set at St. John's College Construction of a dormitory, the first building to be built since 1958 on the campus of St. John's College in Annapolis, is scheduled to begin this month. The dormitory should be ready for occupancy in the fall of 2004. The St. John's campus was built for a student population of 350, and enrollment now tops 450. Currently, the college accommodates 315 students on campus by using some large dorm rooms for triples, and turning some common rooms into rooms for students.

On Nov. 6, Maryland voters will actually have the final say regarding the controversial issue of providing in-state college tuition for young adults who have no moral or legal right to be in Maryland. These are uninvited non-citizens who take our jobs, use our public schools, hospitals, health care, and social services with impunity from the law. Under Gov. Martin O'Malley's tutelage, Maryland voters have had to tolerate the misguided actions of state and county elected officials who have effectively turned Maryland into a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, costing taxpayers more than $1.9 billion per year.

Progress toward Baltimore County's goal of improving the achievement of black students is slow in places and slipping in others, according to a new report.A report presented last night to the county school board indicated slight improvements for black students in some test scores. But blacks continued to be suspended from school in higher proportion to their numbers and to be under-represented in courses for fast learners."This is awful," said Dunbar Brooks, who was one of several school board members who commented on the report.

Barbara Strong Goss believes that Howard County's elementary schools divide students by class and race. It is a system, she says, that has "separate but not so equal schools."Armed with maps and markers, she is on a crusade to change the fundamental principles of school redistricting and the boundary lines that accompany it.Ms. Strong Goss, an Ellicott City mother and a lawyer, took her proposals to the Board of Education and, Thursday, to the Howard County Human Rights Commission. She hopes to gain support for her plan to redistrict schools based on the socioeconomic levels of the students, not just on how crowded a school is."

THE NOTION THAT development is packing kids like sardines into Anne Arundel the school system suffers pockets of overcrowding, but they are more the result of changes in state class size formulas than a real increase in student population. The number of pupils is actually lower than in the early 1970s, despite the construction of 57,000 homes since then. Some 14,000 classroom seats countywide sit empty. Current growth in enrollment is expected to peak in four years, then decline.County Executive John G. Gary's new policy on development and schools must be viewed with these facts in mind.

For a few hours after school, Ryan Johnson is just like most 16-year-olds. He lounges on the couch with his favorite Xbox game or checks his Facebook page. But then reality sets in. He decamps from his cousins' house for the Howard County cold-weather shelter. Dinner is a meal with his father and 20 other homeless people. He goes to bed early, on a green plastic mat next to strangers, who also have no other place to go in one of the state's wealthiest counties. "It has been really hard," said Ryan, a junior at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia.

They were dancing in the halls at Sandalwood Elementary School in Essex and for good reason. The Baltimore County elementary is one of only two in the state — the other is on the Eastern Shore — to earn recognition as a National Title I Distinguished School for the 2011-2012 year. The staff has hung a banner proclaiming the award in bold letters near the front door, across the lobby from a large billboard filled with photos of smiling academic achievers, who are the newest Sandalwood Star Students.

More than 21,000 students attend Towson University. To PNC Bank, that's 21,000 potential customers. PNC is planning to open its first full-service, on-campus branch in Maryland at Towson's student center Thursday in a space previously occupied by Capital One Bank. The Pittsburgh-based financial giant sees the move as its entree into the University System of Maryland, with its 12 institutions and its more than 150,000 undergraduate and graduate students. "PNC wants to continue to grow and invest in the market," said Matt Martin, PNC's greater Maryland retail banking market manager.

Janet Gilbert's column "The college we visited was mighty nice … and mighty white" (June 16) is a good example of racism. The student population was judged on skin color alone. Ms. Gilbert has taught her child to see only color. The wonderful diversity of cultures such as Greek, Italian, Hungarian, English, Canadian, French, Irish, Scottish, Norwegian, Polish, Czech, Swedish and Finnish — plus the many combinations thereof — were completely ignored. Hopefully, her children will be wise enough to see beyond skin color.

If you were a parent of a Los Angeles school child this year, instead of relying on mommy gossip, you could look up your child's possible third-grade teachers on a Los Angeles Times website and see which one was the most effective based on how his or her students performed on standardized tests. If the students went on to perform as expected in fourth grade, the "added value" of the third-grade teacher would be considered neutral. If the students performed better than expected in fourth grade, based on their third-grade scores, then the teacher clearly had been the reason – had been of "added value" - and might even expect a bonus.

Shalini Uttamsingh has watched International Night at Fulton Elementary School grow from an event that featured a handful of countries and attracted a couple of hundred people last year, to a major production spotlighting 20 countries and drawing a crowd of about 500. The growth of the event over just two years also serves as a reflection of the shift in the ethnic diversity among the county's student population. "You got an insider's view to the culture," said Uttamsingh, a parent and co-organizer of the event.

PROVIDING an additional $9 million for school construction was a wise move by Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker. Too bad he won't similarly improve the school operating budget to serve the growing student population.After years of austerity, Howard can finally afford new reading and school discipline programs. But Mr. Ecker doesn't want to provide the money, and the County Council is marching to his beat.Putting more local money into the schools' long-range capital budget became necessary after the state allocation came in at $13 million, instead of the $20 million expected.

Freedom area should oppose greater densityThe planning commission of Carroll County wants to hear from citizens of the Freedom area. The commission is considering rezoning 295 acres of agricultural land that is within Linton Springs Elementary School district from conservation to R-20, or half-acre lots.The land lies between Linton Springs Elementary, Linton and Klee Mill roads and Little Morgan Run. Allowing acreage for infrastructure such as roads and open space and areas that are not suitable for construction, 400 homes is not a low estimate.

Maryland ranked No. 1 in the nation in the percentage of high school seniors taking and passing the rigorous Advanced Placement exams, squeaking by New York, which has held the top position for decades, according to a report released yesterday by the College Board. The achievement comes years after Maryland strengthened the curriculum in middle and high schools to better prepare students for college. For instance, many students now take Algebra I in eighth grade so that they can take calculus by the time they graduate.

Bad time to cut funding to community colleges Historically, during an economic downturn, students turn more than ever to community colleges for workforce training and an affordable alternative to more expensive public and private four-year institutions. Howard Community College is already experiencing significant increases in the number of high school graduates enrolling. Additionally, this fall's full-time equivalent student enrollment increased 6.26 percent over last year - more than double the projected increase of 3 percent.