Private Schools Challenge Students to Achieve

One of the easiest ways to ignite a fire storm among a group of inner-city educators is to ask them how best to challenge students. Educators from the slums of Baltimore to the barrios of Los Angeles have cried out that their children cannot achieve unless we reform “the system.” There have been calls for […]

A HOPEless Cause

Though it looks as though Governor Glendening’s plans for a middle-class education entitlement will be dashed this legislative session, we are disturbed to note that some legislators are committed to further “study” of the government-provided scholarship issue. From the point of view of fiscal responsibility, this is a scheme with nothing to recommend it. Deep-six […]

Keiffer Mitchell to Back Vouchers?

At a recent symposium hosted by United Citizens for Maryland’s Future,1 state education Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick rhetorically asked, “Should any student, by accident of where he lives, have to attend a failing school?” Having solicited the requisite negative nods from the audience, Dr. Grasmick went on to describe how the Maryland School Performance Assessment […]

Cutting Taxes: Why and Why Now

The year is 2002. Maryland is flourishing, with robust economic growth – well above the 1.5 percent anemic growth of the mid-l980s. Businesses are moving to Maryland and expanding by the score. Small businesses are appearing all over to fill the niches vacated by retreating big government and merging companies. Location consultants brag about Maryland. […]

Talking Taxes: Rural Counties Seriously Gypped

The nay-saying has started. Opponents of tax cuts have deluged the General Assembly with dire warnings about the consequences of trimming taxes. So let us put Maryland’s fiscal situation in perspective. It is hardly as though Annapolis has been on a diet over our readers’ lifetimes. Adjusted for inflation, state expenditure was $1.7 billion back […]

This Is Our House: How the Caroline Center Tackles Job Readiness

Drive a few blocks due east of the state penitentiary in downtown Baltimore and you will cross the 900 block of Somerset Street. There you will find the “Caroline Center: A Learning/Career Center for Women of East Baltimore.”1 This is not a salubrious part of town. Nonetheless, the center concentrates on providing intensive, values-based training […]

Private Models Improve Services to Vets

The homeless veteran – he is a historical problem we want to ignore. The sheer magnitude of the dilemma makes us feel helpless. Ragged men – and women – on the streets, haggard from sleepless nights, eyes bloodshot from too much booze or drugs. Marylanders are not strangers to this sight, because we have some […]

The Interview: Charles I. Ecker, Howard County Executive

We continue our series of interviews with the major contenders in the 1998 gubernatorial race. In this issue, we talk with Chuck Ecker, county executive for Howard County. Dr. Ecker will be facing 1994 Republican nominee Ellen R. Sauerbrey in the GOP primary. Calvert Question. Your proudest accomplishments as county executive? Ecker Answer. I think […]

Reforming The Schools To Save the City, Part II

About the Author Douglas P. Munro, Ph.D. Doug Munro was born in in England in February 1964. Two years later, the Munros moved to the Mediterranean island of Malta, engaging in the tourism business until 1977. The family moved back to the U.K. that year, to central Scotland. Munro received his undergraduate degree in history […]

The Dissent: How the Townsend Report Fails to Address the Roots of Juvenile Crime and What to Do About It

About the Authors Robert M. McCarthy, J.D. Robert M. McCarthy is the named principal of a general-practice law firm located in Bethesda, Maryland. His particular concentration is in juvenile cases; he has handled approximately 5,000 such cases in the last 15 years. Previously, he was a contract attorney with the Maryland state Public Defender’s Office […]