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Kids suffer for politics

Originally published in the Frederick News-Post

Education

by Marta Hummel Mossburg

OP-EDS

Someone told me a story once about a boy standing amid thousands of starfish on dry sand. He was hurling those within reach back into deep water when a man walked by and asked the boy why he was wasting his time -- the vast majority would die. The boy replied that his effort mattered to the ones he saved.

That's the story behind the BOAST tax credit killed by the state House Ways and Means Committee on Monday, the last day of the legislative session. And it means that the opportunity to transcend the dictates of poverty through a good education will die for thousands of poor children across the state. What makes it worse is that they were issued their death sentence by a legislator representing the richest district in Maryland supported by those who allegedly hold children's interests first, the state teachers union.

As originally written, BOAST -- Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers (SB 385/HB 946) -- would have allowed businesses to receive a tax credit for making donations to public school enrichment programs and private scholarship organizations. It passed the state Senate 30-17 with the support of Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Similar programs have passed with wide bipartisan support in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida and Georgia, among other states. In Pennsylvania, businesses have lobbied to expand the credit as they see it as a tangible way to immediately improve their communities and develop the talent they need in coming years.

Under the leadership of Delegate Sheila Hixson, D-Montgomery, the state House Ways and Means Committee gutted the bill over the weekend. Amendments would have effectively eliminated Jewish schools from being able to access the credit and turn it into a subsidy program for aging private schools with declining enrollment. While it would still help a few Catholic schools, the Maryland Catholic Conference did not support the revised version.

"It's hard to believe this is a good-faith effort when these amendments were developed without any consultation with the affected schools and shared with them only at the last minute," said Mary Ellen Russell, the executive director of the organization.

Among the new requirements for receiving a grant is that a school have been operating for 25 years; have lost 10 percent of its enrollment over the last five years; have geographic diversity; and does not charge tuition greater than the average statewide per pupil public school expenditure. The last item is almost humorous since tuition at the vast majority of the state's private schools is thousands less than the per pupil amount designated for public school students.

The bigger issue is that private schools save the state $1.5 billion annually by taking students out of public schools. Many educate children for half of what it costs the state to educate a child. And they do so often with vastly better academic results than public schools, according to a study of about 500 poor children enrolled in 70 private schools in the Baltimore region for Children's Scholarship Fund-Baltimore, where I am a board member.

With the credit, private schools would be able to offer thousands more poor children throughout the state the option to attend a school that best meets their academic needs and help public schools offer teachers and students opportunities regular funds do not afford. Killing it condemns more children to a fate they didn't choose and a power structure more concerned with self-preservation than academic excellence.

Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute. mmossburg@mdpolicy.org