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School choice, with equalized funding. I'm all for that. When a public school in Baltimore gets the same funding as a school in a posh upper-middle class subu

School choice, with equalized funding. I'm all for that. When a public school in Baltimore gets the same funding as a school in a posh upper-middle class suburb, then school choice works. And saying that unions need to be reformed in different directions is very different from saying that unions need to be done away with.

yummyfajitas 16y ago
Interesting. So cutting the funding of Baltimore public schools by $3-5k will make school choice effective? http://www.somdnews.com/stories/03032010/entetop162900_32193.shtml http://www.somdnews.com/stories/03032010/entetop162900_32193... (The richer suburbs, e.g. Charles and St. Marys spend $3-5k/student less than Baltimore schools.)
- michaelchisari 16y ago
  Are those numbers balanced for special needs and other per-student costs? Does it take into account various other cost requirements? If you compare teacher salaries, are they equivalent? There's a considerable amount of research done on the effects and nature of funding disparities, if you haven't looked into it, I'd recommend it.
  - yummyfajitas 16y ago
    Teacher salaries appear to be considerably lower in St Marys and Charles county than in Baltimore. I'm too lazy to do a county by county comparison for all of Maryland (a state I've never even visited). http://www.bcps.org/offices/PAYROLL/pdf/scales/TABCO-12-Month-Payscale.pdf&pli=1 http://www.bcps.org/offices/PAYROLL/pdf/scales/TABCO-12-Mont... http://www2.ccboe.com/employment/Teacher-SalaryScale-1011.pdf http://www2.ccboe.com/employment/Teacher-SalaryScale-1011.pd... http://divisions.smcps.org/hr/sites/divisions.smcps.org.hr/files/file/2011_Salary_Scales.pdf http://divisions.smcps.org/hr/sites/divisions.smcps.org.hr/f... I've heard many assertions that inner city and other underperforming schools are underfunded. But whenever I go to look them up, and compare them to the rich suburbs, they seem to be wildly overfunded. Baltimore seems to be better funded than the rest of Maryland. Newark and Trenton public schools are funded better than most of NJ, and perform terribly. But hey, you've got vague allusions to a "considerable amount of research". That's more useful than hard numbers.
    - michaelchisari 16y ago
      Just so you know, the first link is for Baltimore County, not Baltimore City. They're separate entities, and Baltimore County is considerably wealthier than Baltimore City, having gone to such great lengths to separate themselves as a tax base, that you even have Towson listed as Baltimore County, despite being within Baltimore City. There's also the issue, unaddressed, of extra per-student costs. For instance, special needs students can be very expensive, often requiring one-on-one instruction, which can greatly skew the per-student costs.

yummyfajitas 16y ago

Interesting. So cutting the funding of Baltimore public schools by $3-5k will make school choice effective? http://www.somdnews.com/stories/03032010/entetop162900_32193.shtml http://www.somdnews.com/stories/03032010/entetop162900_32193... (The richer suburbs, e.g. Charles and St. Marys spend $3-5k/student less than Baltimore schools.)

michaelchisari 16y ago
Are those numbers balanced for special needs and other per-student costs? Does it take into account various other cost requirements? If you compare teacher salaries, are they equivalent? There's a considerable amount of research done on the effects and nature of funding disparities, if you haven't looked into it, I'd recommend it.
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  Teacher salaries appear to be considerably lower in St Marys and Charles county than in Baltimore. I'm too lazy to do a county by county comparison for all of Maryland (a state I've never even visited). http://www.bcps.org/offices/PAYROLL/pdf/scales/TABCO-12-Month-Payscale.pdf&pli=1 http://www.bcps.org/offices/PAYROLL/pdf/scales/TABCO-12-Mont... http://www2.ccboe.com/employment/Teacher-SalaryScale-1011.pdf http://www2.ccboe.com/employment/Teacher-SalaryScale-1011.pd... http://divisions.smcps.org/hr/sites/divisions.smcps.org.hr/files/file/2011_Salary_Scales.pdf http://divisions.smcps.org/hr/sites/divisions.smcps.org.hr/f... I've heard many assertions that inner city and other underperforming schools are underfunded. But whenever I go to look them up, and compare them to the rich suburbs, they seem to be wildly overfunded. Baltimore seems to be better funded than the rest of Maryland. Newark and Trenton public schools are funded better than most of NJ, and perform terribly. But hey, you've got vague allusions to a "considerable amount of research". That's more useful than hard numbers.
  - michaelchisari 16y ago
    Just so you know, the first link is for Baltimore County, not Baltimore City. They're separate entities, and Baltimore County is considerably wealthier than Baltimore City, having gone to such great lengths to separate themselves as a tax base, that you even have Towson listed as Baltimore County, despite being within Baltimore City. There's also the issue, unaddressed, of extra per-student costs. For instance, special needs students can be very expensive, often requiring one-on-one instruction, which can greatly skew the per-student costs.