Vouchers

For once I agree with Marta Mossburg, that something needs to be done about Baltimore City public schools ("Baltimore City schoolchildren deserve a real choice," Sept. 12). But I'm very curious where she came up with the numbers she uses to push her idea for vouchers. Unless she's living in a very different world from Baltimore, her numbers just don't add up. She says that Baltimore City spends $14,711 per student, which she says is the third highest in the nation. That may be true, but then she follows it up by saying, "Private school costs are lower than public school costs" and that a voucher system would cost only $42,00 per pupil over a three year period.

In a recent letter to the editor, Johns Hopkins professor Stefanie DeLuca recently suggested that many landlords refuse to rent to people with Section 8 housing vouchers because they are unfairly prejudiced against those prospective tenants ("Mossburg misrepresents research on vouchers," May 8). My guess is that Ms. DeLuca has never dealt with Section 8 as a landlord. The prejudice of landlords is directed not against the people but against the nightmare bureaucracy that Section 8 rentals entail.

Here's an Orioles' press release worth passing on to those of you who are hoping to get autographs at FanFest later this month: "Vouchers for autograph sessions at the Orioles' 2012 FanFest will go on sale this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. The list of autograph session times and participants will be posted online for preview at www.orioles.com/fanfest by 9:00 p.m. this Friday. Orioles FanFest will be held on Saturday, January 21 at the Baltimore Convention Center from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with early entry for Orioles Season Plan Holders to begin at 10:00 a.m. At this year's FanFest, the Orioles will continue an autograph policy designed to support youth charitable endeavors through OriolesREACH and reduce fan disappointment by shortening wait times.

As the legislative chair of the Maryland Association of Housing and Redevelopment Agencies, which represents the agencies that actually administer the Section 8 rental assistance program, it was disturbing to read the distortions in Marta Mossburg's recent column ("Forcing landlords to accept vouchers won't help the poor," April 23). In addition to Ms. Mossburg's misstatements related to the Maryland HOME Act bill itself, which is merely intended to protect every person in the state as long as they have a lawful source of income, she instead focuses on whether the discrimination Section 8 voucher holders experience at the hand of landlords really makes any difference at all. Well, in my experience it does!

Your support for school vouchers (Nov. 25, "An open mind on vouchers") is as mystifying as Mayor Kurt Schmoke's. It isn't often that The Sun advocates stomping on the Bill of Rights when things aren't going well, but this is clearly an exception.Contrary to the opinions held by Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed and their followers, there is indeed a separation of church and state in the United States. It's the main reason that so many religions are currently flourishing here, as well as a key factor in keeping religious strife from our shores.

Vouchers? Block grants? Privatization? Fiscal asphyxiation in an era of fierce government cost-cutting? Where is public housing headed in America?No one knows the answer for sure. The only certainty is that the system's biggest error -- the massive crime-, grime- and graffiti- afflicted high-rise apartment blocks in some American cities -- is no longer tolerable.The federal government has sunk $90 billion into public housing since 1937 and today can point to 1.4 million units. All but a few hundred thousand are, in fact, well enough run and in decent shape.

Baltimore housing officials are warning that the city's homeless and others in need are being misled by deceptive fliers offering Section 8 housing vouchers. The fake fliers are circulating throughout the city, according to statement from the Housing Authority of Baltimore City. The fliers tell people to bring pay stubs, Social Security information and proof of income to the housing office to apply for a program that actually ran out of money last year. "These claims are not true," the statement from the housing authority says.

Human nature frequently disproves theories. Conventional wisdom, for example, says that open office space plans with workers grouped like cattle encourage creativity and collaboration. But study after study shows that people are more inventive, productive and healthy with more privacy. Susan Cain writes about this eloquently in "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. " But examples are legion of experience trumping ideology. Would that legislators, like state Sen. Jamie Raskin, keep this in mind when trying to help people.

Had a chance today to speak to Earl Weaver, the Orioles' Hall of Fame manager who will be one of the club's six icons to be honored with a bronze statue this year at Camden Yards. Calling from South Florida, Weaver said he was overwhelmed by the gesture. “It's quite an honor and something you never expect to happen in anyone's life,” said Weaver, who won 1,480 games with the Orioles and led the club to one world championship (1970) and three other World Series appearances (1969, 1971, 1979)

WASHINGTON -- Al Gore promised lots of choices in his acceptance speech to the Democratic convention. Women, he said, would be assured, through his Supreme Court appointments, the right to choose on abortion. A Gore administration would "give more power back to parents," by letting them choose the entertainment they want for their children. But on one issue -- vouchers to let parents choose schools for their children -- Mr. Gore was fervidly anti-choice. Everyone knows why -- Mr. Gore's deep reliance on the politically potent teacher unions, the National Education Association (NEA)

As we recently celebrated the 45th anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act, it is significant to note that the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan regions are among the most segregated in America. Last month, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law recently reported on a study showing that Maryland's public school system is among the most segregated in the nation. The report, conducted by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, revealed that more than half of the state's black students attended schools with minority enrollments between 90 percent and 100 percent during the 2010-2011 school year, up from 33 percent in 1989.

Human nature frequently disproves theories. Conventional wisdom, for example, says that open office space plans with workers grouped like cattle encourage creativity and collaboration. But study after study shows that people are more inventive, productive and healthy with more privacy. Susan Cain writes about this eloquently in "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. " But examples are legion of experience trumping ideology. Would that legislators, like state Sen. Jamie Raskin, keep this in mind when trying to help people.

Another day and another player linked to the Orioles goes elsewhere. This time it was Lance Berkman, who signed a one-year, $10 million deal (with a $1 million option buyout) to be the Texas Rangers' designated hitter, according to several reports. Berkman's penchant to get on base (a lifetime .409 mark) certainly made him intriguing to the Orioles, but given his persistent knee injuries and the fact that, at 36, he is strictly a DH these days, it wasn't really a fit. He is like a lot of other free agents on the market this year.

Autograph session vouchers for this month's Orioles FanFest will go on sale Saturday morning at 10 on the team's website (Click HERE for the link). The event's autograph session schedule will be posted on the website by 9 p.m. on Friday. This year's FanFest will take place on January 19 at the Baltimore Convention Center from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Orioles season plan holders will gain early entry at 10 a.m. Autograph vouchers, limited to 250 for each session, will be $15 each, with the proceeds going to OriolesREACH.

For once I agree with Marta Mossburg, that something needs to be done about Baltimore City public schools ("Baltimore City schoolchildren deserve a real choice," Sept. 12). But I'm very curious where she came up with the numbers she uses to push her idea for vouchers. Unless she's living in a very different world from Baltimore, her numbers just don't add up. She says that Baltimore City spends $14,711 per student, which she says is the third highest in the nation. That may be true, but then she follows it up by saying, "Private school costs are lower than public school costs" and that a voucher system would cost only $42,00 per pupil over a three year period.

"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)

Washington -- A new language has entered the world of education. Call it ''Voucherspeak.''Its proponents speak of ''school choice,'' the ability of parents to pick their children's schools, as a way to bring about educational ''excellence'' by forcing schools to ''compete'' with each other, sort of like hamburger franchises, and drive the bad schools ''out of business.''The ''voucher'' visionaries imagine a world in which parents would receive vouchers for the money now spent on their children's public schooling so the poor could shop private and parochial schools as the rich already do.It is a vision so glorious that support for vouchers has risen dramatically in recent years, perhaps most dramatically among poor black families, even though skeptics fear vouchers might lead to more segregation, isolation and misery for poor minority children.

WHEN I, of strong southern black Baptist upbringing, attended Catholic school for a year, I was subjected to sustained proselytizing, was required to study religion (guess which one) and to attend mass every Wednesday morning.I did mind, but I was only a kid. However, I resisted the pressure and happily went back to public school. But that experience shaped forever my views on state-church relations: The constitutional separation must be upheld.Even if church officials from all denominations swore on a Bible that they would not proselytize their young wards, the schools should never be financed by public funds, especially at the expense of the public school system.

Just when you thought the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program for poor, predominantly minority kids was fully protected from politics, here comes the Obama administration with another broadside. The popular program (which falls under congressional jurisdiction) allows impoverished children in the notoriously underperforming D.C. public school system to attend area private schools with vouchers of up to $12,000. Its contentious history includes full-scale support from congressional Republicans and theGeorge W. Bush administration.