And if they are in a low-performing school with an inexperienced teacher, chances are the teacher won’t have a mentor to help with that hard first year of teaching.
These are a few examples of the costs Baltimore schools will pay as they come to terms with a $58 million deficit. The cost to the education of the city’s children, some say, will be less than the public expected in winter when the system was on the brink of insolvency and wrestling through months of emotional negotiations with the mayor and the governor over who would bail out the school system.
“I am not seeing a real diminishment in the academic areas,” Bonnie S. Copeland, the school system’s chief executive officer, said. “We tried to put a box around the classroom instruction in terms of any budget cuts.”
Others disagree and find the price unacceptably high, saying the cuts take a knife to the very programs that brought Baltimore academic progress after years of criticism for failure. Putting some of these initiatives on hold for two years while the system pays off its deficit, they say, could derail that hard-won progress.
“The Baltimore City school system was making very encouraging and steady progress in a number of areas, particularly elementary school, perhaps the most encouraging progress of any urban school system in the country,” said Bebe Verdery, education director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland. “We are worried that progress is being halted. We don’t think being on hold a couple of years is acceptable.”
At a time when the federal and state governments are demanding to see yearly progress from urban schools, the city faces a challenge to keep improving classroom instruction. Otherwise, students will find themselves left behind – failing the state high school exit exams that are likely to be required in the next few years or unable to cope with the redesigned SATs.
So the ACLU is not just focused on changes to the current academic program, but also on what plans won’t be implemented in the next two years.
Court oversight
Baltimore Circuit Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan is concerned enough to request that school officials give him a detailed explanation of the effects of spending reductions on academic programs by tomorrow.
Kaplan oversees a decade-old lawsuit, filed on behalf of students, that claims Baltimore schools were so poorly financed that city children weren’t receiving an adequate education as required by the state constitution.
The consent decree meant to settle that lawsuit in 1997 resulted in a major overhaul of the city schools that traded greater state oversight for millions more in state funds.
The school system began a series of reforms that were intended to turn around what had been described as an “academically bankrupt” system, and money was poured into the basics.
The schools reduced class size, gradually increased teacher pay to make it competitive with surrounding suburbs, adopted a uniform reading and math curriculum across the city for the elementary grades and purchased new textbooks.
Reform setbacks
But in each of the last two years, the school board has approved a budget that diminishes some of those reforms, including increasing class size by two students on average. So a first-grader in September 2002 would have had 18 students in his class while a first-grader entering this fall will have 22 students in a class. High school classes could swell to 32 students.
A year ago, school board members bemoaned having to increase class size, suggesting that test scores might drop. Some said one of the reasons the city’s first-graders were scoring above the national average on standardized tests in reading and math was due to small classes.
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It is unclear whether the class size increases were carried out systemwide this school year – Copeland was not in charge when the decision was made last spring and said she was unsure about the outcome.
In 1998, the city also changed reading instruction, buying new textbooks that emphasized phonics in the early years and training all elementary teachers in the new curriculum.
Generally, school systems replace textbooks every five years, but the city has delayed the purchase of new reading textbooks for two years because of financial problems.
Copeland points out that the schools are purchasing new high school algebra textbooks because that was judged a greater need.
The city also has cut back on mentoring for first- and second-year teachers in its poorest-performing schools. Two years ago, the city had 62 part-time mentors and 39 full-time mentors who were working in 60 schools. Next fall, 30 full-time mentors will be spread out among 22 schools.
When the board decided several years ago to set tough new passing standards, about a third of students were held back each year. They were given the opportunity to attend summer school and, if they passed, could move on to the next grade. Summer school was expensive, however, costing about $16 million. This year it was significantly scaled back.
“I do think it is tragic that the major efforts that were put forth in the early reform have been put on hold,” said Tyson Tildon, a longtime school board member who campaigned to raise standards.
The school system is continuing some of the reforms that were begun over the past seven years, including its reform of the neighborhood high schools. Next year, two small innovative schools will open.
Reducing the deficit
Parents, students and education advocates recognize that the system could not continue its rate of spending, but they suggest that the city schools could pay back the deficit over a longer time, lessening the pain of cutbacks in the short term. This year the system is reducing the deficit by $35 million and setting aside $10 million for emergencies. That means the school system will take in $45 million more in revenue than it actually spends.
The deficit has already had an impact. The system’s 12,000- strong work force has been reduced by nearly 1,000 through attrition and layoffs. Employee morale seems low, and although no data is yet available, teachers apparently are leaving the schools in larger-than-usual numbers.
Kevin A. Slayton Sr., president of the Parent and Community Advisory Board, suggests a smaller annual deficit reduction, retiring it in 2008 rather than 2006, as a way of safeguarding money for reforms.
“I think it is evident that academics have taken a back seat to the budget,” Slayton said.
Verdery at the ACLU agrees with the advisory board’s deficit suggestion.
“It is an arbitrary decision that will be hurting kids. There is no reason we have been given to pay down the deficit in two years.”
Student activists
A group of activist students has taken another tack, collecting 400 signatures to demand that Kaplan find Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick in contempt of court for failing to fully fund the school system.
In 2000, Kaplan wrote an opinion saying that the school system was receiving about $2,000 to $2,500 per student less than needed. It was presumed by state legislators and education advocates that the millions in additional state money that was to come in later years under the so-called Thornton funding would make up the difference. But with Thornton now up in the air, the ACLU could decide to bring the issue back to the courts.
The ACLU, one of the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit, also could ask Kaplan to take action if it appears that academic programs are being harmed.
Kaplan is expected to hold a hearing on the issue this summer.
<!– ART CREDITCHRISTOPHER T. ASSAF : SUN STAFF
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTCity College sophomore Keva Green leads a February student protest over the school system's budget crisis outside the State Department of Education offices in Baltimore.
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