Testimony of Andrés A. Alonso, Ed.D.

Chief Executive Officer of the Baltimore City Public School System

Before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee

House Committee on Ways and Means

House Committee on Appropriations

On the Budget Reconciliation Act

October 30, 2007

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, the House Committee on Ways and Means, and the House Committee on Appropriations about the Governor’s Budget Reconciliation Act on funding for education. I want to thank this body for its investment in our schools during these past six years.

The Bradford Opinion defines a constitutionally adequate education as one commensurate with "contemporary educational standards". During this decade, this body has invested great resources in order to bring about this outcome in Maryland schools. Considerable amounts of this investment have gone to Baltimore City schools. As a result, we have seen improvements in the readiness of our students for schools, double digit increases in the percentage of students scoring proficient and advanced for all grades and all tests in the Maryland State Assessments since the first year of testing (except in one grade, where there were single digit gains), increased passing rates in all High School Assessments despite increased numbers of students taking the assessments, and increased numbers of students graduating from high school despite falling enrollment levels. We have also seen more than doubling of students passing AP exams with a score of 3 or higher and more than doubling of AP classes offered by schools. We have been able to reduce staffing rates for our schools, as well as increase the number of highly qualified teachers in our schools.

These accomplishments would have been impossible without the investment in education made by the state of Maryland. Unfortunately, we have a long way to go to bring our students to "contemporary educational standards," especially in a context of increased standards and accountability. I will give you only one statistic to buttress this unassailable fact: today, 3356 or our Class of 2009 students, the first class that must pass four High School Assessments to graduate from high school, have to pass at least one High School Assessment to graduate. The percentage of our graduates in 2006 who enrolled in either four or two year college programs was 44% compared to the national average of 66%. The college graduation rate within five years for those in the class of 2001 who enrolled in college was 14%. These numbers, so unacceptably low, define the challenge for us as a school system, but they also define the extent of the need, not only for the city but for the state.

The job has not been done. I appreciate the attempt to continue to incrementally raise funding for our schools, but the work demands transformation, not incremental thinking. And transformation demands commitment, not retrenchment. We cannot balance our budget by cutting our schools, especially in this the wealthiest state in the nation. I will remind this body that Maryland ranks 13th in per pupil education spending in the nation, but 40th in per pupil education spending as a fraction of median household income. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC all do better. I just arrived from New York, where education spending is 28 percent of median household income. In Maryland, that number is 15.7 percent. But New York has recognized, through the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the need to fund education adequately and equitably. Maryland must do the same, since the future costs to this state of not funding education adequately and equitably are immeasurably larger than the costs of providing for an adequate education for all.

We in Baltimore City face shortfalls under the present proposed funding plan of $51.2 million in FY’09, $47 million in FY’10, and $32.7 million in FY’11. The present proposal to close the $1.7 billion shortfall in the state budget represents a drastic retreat from the commitments and recommendations of the Commission on Education Finance, Equity, and Excellence (the Thornton Commission) and the Judge Kaplan decision in the Bradford litigation. It is not based on any measure of what an adequate education demands. The constitution of the state demands more. Any proposal that shortchanges the students of our city from their right to an adequate education is unacceptable. We in Baltimore City plan to make sure that our students get the resources that they deserve. It takes adequate funding to bring about the change that BCPSS needs and must do. This proposal does not provide adequate funding.