School’s in, but many parents turn outside for better education

Originally published in the Baltimore Examiner

By Alison Lake
Published on Wednesday, August 22, 2007
BALTIMORE - A wall will eventually sag or crumble if too many blocks are missing. The same thing can happen to a child’s education when he or she lacks too many skills. Because so many taxpayer-funded schools are not providing adequate instruction to children, parents must look elsewhere to help fill the gaps. This situation drives growth in the supplemental education market every year. The demand stems both from federal requirements and parents. No Child Left Behind requires that Title I schools not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) provide tutoring to needy students. In spite of the NCLB mandate, many more children need supplemental education than receive it. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said states and school districts need to vastly improve how they advertise tutoring information to parents in an August 2006 report. Contracting and services mismanagement, for example, led to only 19 percent of eligible students in the 2004-2005 school year receiving extra help. In 2007, 2.3 million students were eligible for services. Many issues can contribute to students not using services, including living in rural or dangerous areas without many tutor choices, a lack of information about them and language barriers. Read More »

Fixing Baltimore's education crisis

Originally published in the Baltimore Examiner

By Christopher B. Summers
Published on Tuesday, May 15, 2007
BALTIMORE - In 1999, the Children's Scholarship Fund announced it would provide private-school scholarships to low-income families across the country. In Baltimore, 46,000 families applied for scholarships - approximately 44 percent of the eligible student population. Since the number of available scholarships was scarce, only 430 lucky students received scholarships that year. Where are those thousands of children? Most likely many dropped out of high school before graduation. According to one recent study in Education Week, the graduation rate in Baltimore City's public schools could be as low as 39 percent - one of the lowest among major cities in the country. Read More »

School Choice Options for Maryland

Education Tax Credits and the BOAST Tax Credit Proposal

Edited by Alison Lake
Published on Monday, March 12, 2007
In the 2007 Maryland state legislative session, a bipartisan coalition of legislators has introduced the Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers, or BOAST tax credit proposal. This initiative is modeled after a similar tax credit program in Pennsylvania that has strong bipartisan support there. The legislation (Senate Bill 265) is sponsored by State Senator James E. DeGrange, Sr., a Democrat from District 32 (Anne Arundel County) and 17 co-sponsors. In the House of Delegates, the bill is sponsored by Delegate James E. Proctor Jr., a Democrat from District 27A (Calvert and Prince George’s counties) and 57 co-sponsors.The BOAST tax credit proposal would provide up to $25 million in partial tax credits to Maryland businesses that make contributions to support education. Specifically, the bill would allow businesses to make up to $15 million in contributions to non-profit organizations that fund tuition scholarships to non-public schools. Businesses would also be allowed to contribute up to $10 million to organizations that fund initiatives to improve public education. Businesses participating in the BOAST tax credit program would be able to receive a partial tax credit (worth 75 percent of the donation) for qualifying contributions. Read More »

Is It Time To Rethink Teacher Pensions In Maryland?

By Michael Podgursky, Ph.D.
Published on Tuesday, December 05, 2006
The Abell Foundation and the Maryland Public Policy Institute have released a joint study that challenges the claim that Maryland’s teacher pension system is hampering teacher recruitment and retention. The study, authored by University of Missouri economist Michael Podgursky, Ph.D., a specialist in the teacher labor market, finds that Maryland’s traditional teacher pension system was on par with peer states. His findings will likely be controversial; coming just months after the 2006 General Assembly approved an expensive increase in teacher pensions, and prior to a 2007 General Assembly in which the state’s teachers union is expected to push for an additional increase. More importantly, the study raises the question: If the teacher retirement plan is on par with other states, then why is Maryland really losing young teachers to other states? In “Is It Time To Rethink Teacher Pensions in Maryland?” Prof. Podgursky finds that in terms of simple income replacement rates, the traditional Maryland teacher pension system did appear to be among the worst in the nation. However, this measure does not accurately reveal the value of teachers’ pensions.Podgursky finds: “Given the high professional mobility of public school teachers, education policy makers should consider providing Maryland teachers with a defined contribution alternative to the current system — a plan that would ‘travel with’ mobile teachers.” Read More »

Focus Group Study: Foster Care Families, Children, and Education

Published on Thursday, November 30, 2006
The Maryland Public Policy Institute is working to spearhead initiatives that help children entrusted in the foster care system to simultaneously receive a high-quality education. Many of these children experience unstable and often abusive living conditions. Social service placement typically requires frequent relocations for these wards of the courts: home-to-home, community-to-community and school-to-school. At this time, The Maryland Public Policy Institute has enlisted the services of Baltimore Research to conduct research that will aid in gaining a better understanding of the impact of foster care on the education of those in its charge. Read More »