In the News

from the The Daily Record (Baltimore, MD), 2.20.04

Commentary: On Second Thought -
So much more than a bailout 

By Mark Cheshire

Much as we might like it to be otherwise, the Baltimore City school crisis affects every single Marylander, whether we're parents or not, whether we're city residents or not. And not just financially.
Unlike Reaganomics, education really does trickle down, to economic development, to transportation and to the environment.

Faced with a $58 million budget deficit, the city school system last week gave teachers an ultimatum: Accept a pay cut or we will fire many of you. The teachers answered defiantly -- we'd prefer termination to having our already meager salaries slashed.

But before the pink slips were issued, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., Baltimore Mayor Martin J. O'Malley and one of the state's true treasures, the nonprofit Abell Foundation, ponied up the cash to keep the system going without immediate staff reductions.

Abell and the city each chipped in with $8 million loans, while the state is poised to provide a $42 million advance on next year's check. So, in a very direct and obvious way, every Maryland taxpayer is on the financial hook for the bailout. State dollars come from state tax receipts.

The economic development ramifications are also clear. It is no secret that many city schools are struggling academically, despite the best efforts of teachers. Additional staff cuts, presumably, would have resulted in diminished instruction and, one would think, results, meaning graduates would be even less prepared to join the work force.

Ask any corporate relocation expert what the No. 1 criterion is when executives are determining where to move or expand. The answer more often than not is quality work force. Without educated people to do the jobs, the Baltimore region will miss out on economic development opportunities. Again, this affects everyone. More jobs equal more revenue for the state.

This is usually where the knee-bone's-connected-to-the-shin-bone analysis of education stops.

So sit up and pay attention, class. The city school system directly affects the amount of time that you spend commuting to work daily, the quality of air you breathe, and the green space available for you to enjoy.
So Howell S. Baum of the University of Maryland persuasively argues in the current edition of the Journal of the American Planning Association.

Baum's focus is actually Smart Growth -- the development strategy that attempts to channel people, businesses and dollars back into aging and shrinking metropolitan areas to preserve open space.

If investors sink cash into the revitalization of, say, Randallstown rather than the conversion of a pristine horse farm into housing and offices, then much is saved. The government doesn't need to spend money on new roads and other infrastructure. If people are closer to their jobs and other amenities, they will spend less time in their cars emitting fumes. And, of course, undeveloped land remains undeveloped.

Because former Gov. Parris N. Glendening was and remains perhaps the nation's leading champion of Smart Growth, Marylanders likely are very well acquainted with the policy. But Baum makes clear that we don't know the entire story.

Although "sprawl is a product of suburban pulls and urban pushes," as Baum writes, we tend to think only of the pull side of the equation. Big yards. Big houses. Big shopping malls. Oh, the siren song of suburban scope and serenity.

Consequently, "in trying to manage sprawl, the mainstream Smart Growth movement concentrates on improving suburban amenities," Baum says.

But that's less than half of the picture, arguably much less than half. The push of sprawl is far more forceful than the pull: Crime, grime and, above all, inferior schooling.

Baum is absolutely unequivocal: "Improving city schools is central to managing sprawl."

On multiple occasions I've heard real estate agents working in the city's very best neighborhoods joke that the migration pattern is as predictable as the sun: People move in before they have kids and out after they have kids to locate near quality schooling.

Now, as Glendening told me a telephone interview this week, Smart Growth can succeed without families with school-age children. Canton's success, for example, is based on revitalized commercial real estate and people without kids -- either pre-kid families or empty nesters.

But Smart Growth would perform even better with improved schools, Glendening said. "In the long run, it hurts badly" when middle-class families who are on the way up economically head out of the city.

As Baum and Glendening make clear, it is completely irrational to shrug and dismiss the city school crisis as somebody else's problem. A struggling city school already is in every Maryland backyard, at least figuratively.

We have no choice but to address the issue. It will be difficult, but we can find a way. And when we do, the payoff socially, economically and environmentally will be enormous.

As so many business books say, the best leaders see crises as opportunities. Let's turn the city's shortfall into a profitable future.

Copyright 2004 Dolan Media Newswires