The $900 million budget for next year, which sets aside $35 million in revenue to pay down the deficit, requires the system to increase class size, cut most summer school programs and reduce mentoring for new teachers. Another $10 million is being set aside for emergencies. The system plans to eliminate the deficit by July 2006.
The ACLU has argued before U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis and Baltimore Circuit Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan that paying down the deficit that quickly would result in harmful program cuts for city school children.
“The cuts … will in our opinion roll back the current educational program for children and it certainly won’t be moving educational programs forward,” said Bebe Verdery, the ACLU of Maryland’s education director.
The ACLU notified the judges that they will file the motion by July 8. A court hearing will be held later that month.
A state law passed this winter requires all school systems in the state to balance their budgets each year, but gives the city a year to catch up.
In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding between the city schools and City Hall requires the school board to pay off the deficit in two years.
Verdery argues that both of those constraints are artificial and that there is no reason the deficit couldn’t be eliminated over a longer period.
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Whether City Hall would be able to provide enough financial assistance to the school system to make that happen is unclear and will be the subject of the hearing late next month.
The ACLU is one of the plaintiffs in three lawsuits brought many years ago against the state, charging that city children were not receiving an adequate education as is required in the state constitution. The result of the suits was a 1997 consent decree that was used as a basis for reorganizing and reforming the school system.
The cases have never been closed, and in 2000 Kaplan ruled that the city schools were still underfinanced by about $2,000 per child.