In Maryland, public education has long been an important priority for government spending since the state constitution has mandated a system of free public schools. The General Assembly further supports this system by compulsory attendance laws and allocating some 50% of the entire state budget to this enterprise.
Despite this noble purpose and commitment, however, the current public school system has become largely wasteful, mismanaged and unresponsive to its fundamental purpose. Sadly, it is now top-heavy with centralized administration that has made innovation, reform, and accountability to citizens and taxpayers extremely difficult, if not entirely impossible, to achieve.
Historically, the General Assembly has sought to correct these problems and improve public education by increasing taxes and spending in this area. However, this “more money” approach has not worked because the cause of these problems is not primarily financial. In lower tax states, for example, with comparable demographic conditions, elected leaders have found ways to significantly lower per-pupil expenditure to achieve higher student achievement scores, higher on-time graduation rate, and lower dropout rates than similar jurisdictions in Maryland.
The real solution to better education in Maryland lies not in more money, but rather in providing greater freedom, choice and competition in the field, such as by reducing and eliminating the extremely restrictive control over non-government, free market education. And, in the state system, control must be de-centralized to replace the current dysfunctional top-down structure with a grassroots framework at the level of each school, community or local school district.
In a de-centralized system, local school districts could employ their own unique criteria for hiring, instruction, and curriculum in public education, employing means more suitable to their unique economic reality. In a modern changing economy, for example, many diverse options in education are available, such as internet, distance learning, individualized tutoring, mixed age classrooms, charter schools, and vouchers to maximize parental choice. Public education in Maryland would then become a vibrant laboratory for innovation and excellence to meet the specific needs of each local school community, as well as the general public also.
In the Maryland state Senate, I would work to implement these vital changes to improve public education to make it more responsive to today’s modern economy, to become a leading model for better education in the whole country.