Baltimore Lawmaker Wants State Money for Schools - Bill Would Require State To Handover $30M By July 1
Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at 05:33AM
TheSpook
A state lawmaker claims the state owes
Baltimore's school system $30 million, and she wants the money fast.
Baltimore City Delegate Jill Carter, D-District 41, sponsored a bill
this legislative session that she said could help speed up the payout,
WBAL-TV 11 News education reporter Tim Tooten reportedCarter fought for
her bill -- House Bill 1297 -- at a House Appropriations Committee
hearing Thursday afternoon. She said her bill would force the state to
hand over the millions due to Baltimore's schools by July 1. The
Baltimore Democrat said the $30 million is the same amount Baltimore
City Circuit Court Judge Joseph Kaplan ordered the state to pay up last
summer. At the time, Kaplan ruled that the district needed between $30
million and $45 million -- on top of the millions he ordered as part of
a consent decree in 1996 that led to a city-state school partnership.
Carter said the new funding is overdue. "Baltimore City children have
still been deprived of the adequate amount of funding they need for an
adequate education under the Constitution. So, we are hoping we can
convince the Legislature of that," Carter said. A city school student
at the hearing couldn't agree more. "Instead of trying to play the
blame game and place all the responsibility of this budget crisis onto
the city, when is someone going to care enough to stand and make the
situation better for students?" said Chelcy Carson. Carter's bill would
earmark the $30 million for specific school programs, including
pre-kindergarten, smaller class sizes, textbooks and teacher
recruitment, Tooten reported. The House Appropriations Committees also
heard from a Baltimore attorney. "There are a substantial amount of
children at risk -- nearly 100,000 children in that system. They are
poor and mostly African-American, and they really don't have any
alternative to get an adequate education unless they attend public
schools," Neal Janey said. But the state's Board of Education isn't
willing to pay up the money, and plans to fight the school funding bill
in a hearing early next week before the Court of Special Appeals. [more]
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