When Will It Be Enough?

Quid Est Veritas began on October 14, 2004. I had talked with Dianna Lancione, the publisher of the Voice, several weeks earlier about including a “liberal” perspective in the Voice’s politics section. Thankfully she graciously allowed me to become a contributing columnist, and for the last decade I have had the opportunity to provide my views on a wide range of issues. I am taking this time to reminisce because as of January 2014, the point-counterpoint portion of the paper’s politics section will be no more.

With that change in mind, I decided to write about a topic near and dear to my heart, namely, the state of education in Anne Arundel County. Several months from now, the Severna Park community will finally get a new high school. This is a wonderful development and long overdue, but it will not even begin to address the challenges our county’s education system currently faces.

Consider the current condition of high schools such as Glen Burnie, Meade and Arundel. Broadneck is in decent shape despite the fact that it was built during the Reagan administration. Northeast has received some recent renovations and there are indeed other high schools that have adequate physical plants, but overall it’s clear that our county high schools are far past their prime.

Perhaps the most glaring example is Old Mill. Built during a time when the “schools without walls” concept was all the rage, the current building, like the “old” Severna Park High School, is crumbling and not in any shape to meet the challenges of the future. The facility not only includes the high school but two middle schools as well. Even worse, it is estimated it will cost an estimated $319 million to replace all three schools.

It is an understatement to say the county council and school board are not prepared to meet this challenge. In addition, the need for a new high school in the Crofton/West County area grows every day. One might ask how we got to this point. How is it that the fourth-richest county in the state of Maryland does not even have the money to fix its current schools, much less build new ones?

It’s no mystery. The answer is a majority of our political leaders are afraid to ask their constituents for the tax dollars needed to fix the problem. Witness the absurd comments of the current council member for the Old Mill school district, John Grasso:

“For some reason we find it necessary to spend money putting in carpeting, air conditioning and flat-screen TVs … We spend too much money on schools, because America is a spoiled country. Do we need it? If the people over in Ghana came to our schools, they would think they’re in a castle.”

If we take his premise to its logical conclusion, it would seem that we should rate all of our county services, including police and fire, on whether the citizens of Ghana would be impressed. I am not sure that is a valid standard to impose.

This kind of attitude is not restricted to Mr. Grasso. For years, the former school board member Victor Bernson sang a similar tune. Back in 2009 he made the statement:

"You hear the same things all the time: 'for the children, for the children, for the children’ … Anything is OK as long as it's for the children.”

Year after year, the school board and county council battle over the school budget and in the end nothing really changes. They can never seem to find the tax dollars needed to fix the problem. Much of this failure is because of Anne Arundel County’s tax cap. In addition, many council members believe you can educate our children on the cheap.

In response to the Berson statement, I wrote the following in my June 2009 Voice column: “I know that many of our elected officials in this county are afraid to even begin to utter the words “tax increase” for fear of prompting hordes of their supporters to throw themselves like lemmings off the cliffs above the Severn River. However, the fact is that you cannot get blood out of a stone. The fact is we cannot continue to adequately fund our schools and keep taxes at the current rate. Something has got to give. We must be adult enough to understand that when we shortchange our schools we are crippling not only our children’s future but also the future of our nation and the world.”

Sadly, I believe this is still the case. Something has got to change or our children and Anne Arundel County as a whole will one day be found at a disadvantage.

Finally, one of our local delegates likes to ask the question, “When will it be enough?” He is referring to the amount of tax dollars we spend on our children’s educational future. My answer to that challenge is this: It will be enough when our county schools no longer have a billion-dollar maintenance backlog. It will be enough when the children of Crofton do not have to go to two different high schools. Most importantly, it will be enough when the young men and women of this county can attend schools that have the same level of resources and amenities that the children of Howard and Montgomery County enjoy. Anne Arundel County is a first-class county in so many ways. It makes no sense, then, for us to continue to pinch pennies while our children attend third-rate schools. They deserve better. Godspeed.