The statewide support offers encouragement to city educators as they prepare to ask lawmakers in Annapolis to boost aid for education — particularly after the system’s financial near-meltdown last year.
Sixty-four percent of those polled were in favor of giving more state funds to city schools and 23 percent were against. Although the greatest support was among Baltimore voters and Democrats, a plurality of rural voters and Republicans favored additional money for the city.
Baltimore schools ranked lowest in voters’ esteem. Sixty-eight percent of city voters said the quality of their schools merited a grade of C, D or F, compared with 42 percent of voters statewide who gave their own neighborhood schools such low grades.
Voters also ranked education as the most important challenge facing the state, as they have done every year for this poll since 1998.
Baltimore’s education advocates said the poll results vindicated their position that city schools have been shortchanged for years.
“It’s significant that Marylanders recognize the importance of fully funding Baltimore’s school system,” said Bebe Verdery, education reform director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland. “We hope that state leaders will act promptly to direct additional funds to children in inadequately funded schools.”
Baltimore school officials said the results bolstered the message they wanted to convey to legislators: People statewide are concerned about the well-being of schools in Baltimore.
“That’s really encouraging, that people feel that way,” said city school board member James W. Campbell, a former state delegate who represented the city and Baltimore County. “It’s an expression of the confidence people have throughout the state that we can run the system and we know best how to provide the best education for our kids.”
City school officials are planning meetings with legislators in Annapolis in coming weeks to lobby for additional funds to repair deteriorating schools. They also seek to speed up state assistance under the Thornton Commission schools reform plan, the statewide education initiative that requires a $1.3 billion yearly funding package for schools, enacted in phases.
Del. Salima S. Marriott, chairwoman of the city House delegation, said lawmakers from across the state agreed with the poll’s results and were taking steps to ensure the city and other jurisdictions would get the money their schools needed.
“Baltimore is getting more school funding,” Marriott said. “We have done everything we can to ensure that happens. It’s critical to Baltimore City.”
Marriott said lawmakers also wanted to improve school conditions, which they found deplorable. “It should be a place where you want to be.”
The poll, conducted this month, surveyed the views of 800 registered voters on state political issues. It has a 3.5 percent margin of error.
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Support for more funding for Baltimore schools was highest in the city, where 84 percent were in favor, and among Democrats, almost three-quarters of whom supported the idea.
Arthur Petersen Jr., a West Baltimore resident whose parents were public schoolteachers in the city and Baltimore County, said Baltimore schools have been underfunded for decades. But he said more money alone wouldn’t solve the system’s management problems or improve city students’ academic performance.
“It’s far more complex than just the lack of money,” said Petersen, 55. “You can keep throwing money at something, but if you don’t have the level of social, political commitment to make something happen, you’re going to wind up in the same situation.”
Like many other city residents, Petersen gave an “F” grade to Baltimore schools in their present state. He sends his son to private school.
A plurality of Republicans and voters in rural counties also backed giving additional state dollars to the city schools. Forty-eight percent of Republicans were in favor, while 40 percent were against. In counties on the Eastern Shore and in Southern and Western Maryland, 50 percent of voters supported an increase, and 36 percent opposed it.
Several voters outside the city who supported more funding for Baltimore said they favored giving teachers throughout Maryland higher salaries and increasing funding for all school systems.
“They just don’t pay them enough for what they do anywhere, not just [in] Baltimore,” said Beth Hamm, 48, of Lusby.
Jennifer Santiago, a mother of two who lives in Salisbury, said she has always supported giving more money to schools.
“I know the city needs more,” added Santiago, 29. “I hear the city schools are more neglected than schools in the county are.”
But Baltimore County resident Mary Dettor said she opposed giving more funding to city schools because of the administration’s past financial missteps. Those include losing track of the number of employees on the payroll and amassing a $58 million budget deficit.
“I’m afraid if more money were allocated to the system, it would not trickle down to the schools,” said Dettor, 31.
Sun staff writer Ivan Penn contributed to this article.