Message from the Chairman:

O'Malley Proposes Electric Surcharge to Fund Crony's Wind Power Project 

Gov. Martin Shameless 
 

Taken from the Maryland Senate Republican Slate

On Wednesday, Governor Martin O'Malley released an email to his "One Maryland" distribution list claiming credit for restoring funds to education as part of the legislative process. As H.L. Mencken would say, "What a bunch of buncome!"

The email is patently untrue - and O'Malley might as well have poured some of his high-priced gasoline on the kindling fires of frustration felt by legislators over O'Malley's absenteeism during the 2011 Session.

First, on Monday, legislators were furious that O'Malley had the gumption to speak at the rally where teachers and government workers were protesting the education funding cuts in the O'Malley budget and the O'Malley legislation to change the state pension system.

Then, on Wednesday, without lifting a finger to help, O'Malley attempts to upstage House Speaker Michael Busch's post-rally announcement that the per-pupil cuts in funding made by O'Malley have been restored by the House Appropriations Committee.

The full O'Malley buncombe email is on the Governor's website (click here). Our crack research team has parsed the email sentence-by-sentence and offer the following annotations to the Governor's spin machine:

Protecting Investments in Our Children's Future (or, How the House Appropriations Committee Saved My Butt on this One)

In January, when we introduced our FY2012 budget, I mentioned that this would be the first word and not the last as we work to balance the state's budget in a fiscally responsible way. (So Governor...why didn't you do it right the first time?)

Our proposed budget protected all-time high funding levels for public education, but over the last few weeks, we have worked with the Maryland General Assembly to do even more. (Let's get this straight. O'Malley proposed a 5% budget cut to education; calls it an all-time high; and then skips town to spend the session in Washington, D.C.)

Yesterday, leaders in the House of Delegates announced $58.5 million in additional education funding that would bring per pupil funding amounts to level funding in our number-one ranked public school system. (The House Appropriations Committee did the "heavy-lifting" to restore education funds and now you take credit for it! Shameless!)

As we continue to work through the economic downturn, we have had to make many sacrifices and tough choices. (Interestingly, Maryland's total budget has gone from $28.8 billion in 2007 to a proposed $34.1 billion for 2012 during this economic downturn. Citizens are sacrificing and paying higher taxes - O'Malley continues to increase state spending!)

And we have done so together, knowing that progress on one of our shared goals requires progress on all. (Translation: O'Malley needed hollow filler words that sound good and mean nothing.)

The people of Maryland are our greatest asset and our continued economic strength depends upon our ability to invest in them, and prepare our children today for the jobs of tomorrow. Our educators, parents and students deserve our commitment to providing our children with the tools to create a better future. (One would think that they also deserve some consistency in 'promises' from their governor.  Instead they get obfuscation.) 

With their dedication, over the years, our State has proven that we can provide a world class education even in tough times. (Thankfully, we believe our educators are teaching real budget-balancing math to our students.  However, according to the non-partisan Maryland General Assembly Department of Legislative Services, O'Malley employs "magic" to balance his budget.)

The investments we make in public education and our institutions of higher learning are the foundation for a stronger Maryland, for a world-class workforce that competes in a global economy, and for expanding opportunity for more of Maryland's families. Together, we've continued to make record investments to build new, state-of-the-art classrooms, integrate curricula across all grade levels, and hire and retain the nation's best teachers. (Yadda, yadda, yadda)

Over the last several weeks, we have worked closely with budget leaders in the General Assembly and I am grateful to them for their hard work to help us restore this funding for our schools. (Can you see the "rocket's red glare" rising from the roof of the Taylor House Office Building when the members of the House Appropriations Committee read this line? Them's fighting words for the state legislators)

But our work is not yet done. If we are going to make this new economy ours - if we are going to compete and win in the future, if we are going to make it in America - then we must also have the courage and the foresight to continue making strategic investments that improve our children's education. (In classic O'Malley-style, O'Malley is taking credit for not leading. He needs to first focus on making it in Annapolis or else his failures here will prevent him pursuing his ambitions to "make it in America") 

http://www.mdsenategop.com/component/content/article/1-home/312-gov-martin-shameless.html 

MD GOP March Tax Madness

Bracket already busted? visit the Maryland Republican Party's website to help them vote for the worst tax hike and learn about various issues facing the state. 

To learn more, please visit 

http://mdgop.org/march-tax-madness/

Maryland Public Policy Institute

Children Need Charters

 Originally Published in the Frederick News-Post

 by Marta Hummel Mossburg

The teachers union in the City of Baltimore may kill one of the highest-performing public schools in the state, KIPP Ujima Village Academy, over wage issues. If negotiations fall apart, its future rests in proposed legislation to make it easier for public charter schools in Baltimore to operate by their own rules.

People can see the 330 student victims of union intransigence as it relates to KIPP, whose model relies on longer school days and years than other public schools.

Unseen are the thousands of children prevented from learning in a rigorous environment like KIPP's by school boards that arbitrarily deny charter-school applications. Charters suffer because Maryland has some of the most feeble laws governing the start-up and operation of public charters.

Frederick Classical Charter is a case in point. The fate of the school remains in limbo since the local board denied its application in November. The terms of three of the members who voted on the proposal have since expired, and the application awaits new consideration.

The school, whose curriculum includes study of Greek and Latin and an internationally respected math program, was told its curriculum was both too similar and too different from local standards. The board also faulted Frederick Classical for the size of its proposed classroom space, even though regulations do not require applicants to have a building at the time of consideration.

Then there is the case of Global Garden Public Charter School in Montgomery County, whose application was rejected last year by the local school board for being "insufficient." The group behind the school appealed the decision to the Maryland State Board of Education. It found that the explanation given to the group was "vague and, at best, confusing" and asked the local school board to revisit Global's application and one other.

Delegate Kathy Afzali, R-4A, is a co-sponsor of HB 1067, a bill to make the process of opening a charter school more transparent and standardized within each county so that future applicants do not have to suffer arbitrary decisions by an education establishment afraid of competition.

As the mother of school-age children said, "One-size-fits-all education doesn't work for all children, and charter schools have proven their worth throughout the country."

Statistics show parents could use more school choice in Maryland. The state boasts about having the best public schools in the country at the same time more and more high school graduates need remedial education in basic math and reading skills in Maryland colleges.

If the state truly wants to create the best public school system in the country, it should welcome competition from public charters and give them both a fair application process and an equal chance to succeed. In most states schools are not bound by collective bargaining agreements as they are in Maryland. And few give local school boards total control over the process, which one advocate likened to McDonald's being given the power to decide whether other fast-food chains could open.

The state must stop graduating students with meaningless degrees. Giving public charter schools a level playing field to compete should be a key step in the process.