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Education Reform In The News
IT'S ABOUT TIME -- CHARTER SCHOOLS IN MARYLAND
By Editorial Staff
Baltimore Times, February 10, 2003
Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. and Lt. Governor Michael Steele unveiled legislation this week to create charter public schools in Maryland. We believe this proposal is long overdue.
The public schools in Baltimore, with some notable exceptions, are a wreck. Just visit Carver High School and students can tell you about teachers who have simply decided to check out and a building that is falling down around their feet.
Imagine for a moment if a group of parents, churches and community organizations got together and started a school. Further imagine that they received government financial support to offer an option of courses based on the students’ interests, used innovative lesson plans to teach the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic and where parents not only help their children with homework, but they also help run the school.
No need to imagine such a thing. There are more than 3,000 charter schools nationwide and our surrounding neighbors Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania have established schools where children are learning and excelling.
A recent survey by the Center for Education Reform reports that charter schools boast improved reading and math scores, higher state test scores, increased parent involvement, higher attendance rates and fewer discipline programs.
Hello! These are the exact problems our city public school system have been dealing with. And who knows, maybe if public schools had to compete with charter schools for dollars, we would see a marked improvement in the public system.
There is more than $225 million in federal funds that will immediately become available to Maryland if the legislature supports the governor’s proposal.
We hope the members of the General Assembly can put the interests of our children ahead of partisan bickering and pass the Ehrlich-Steele Charter School Initiative.
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For more information see Maryland Charter Schools Home Page.