From: Todd Brace
Ellicott City
An open letter to the Howard County Council:
There are some basic rules in life one must observe: You can't fight mom, apple pie orthe PTA requesting restoration of proposed budget cuts to the schoolsystem.
However, being a county employee likely to be affected bythe next potential round of layoffs, being a parent of two children in the Howard County school system, being a former schoolteacher, and, finally, being an individual whose job is to assist individuals facing the crisis of a layoff, I would like to shed a slightly differentlight on the rhetoric that has been in overabundance lately.
The organized teachers' arguments in favor of retaining their rights to a6 percent raise seems to rest on two points: "a contract is a contract" and "education will suffer." Interestingly, this is the order in which they generally present their arguments.
Concerning the contract issue: I would be very surprised if the contract held sacrosanct by the teachers does not contain some language providing for the raise only in the event of available funds.
This is standard contractual language when dealing with "soft"
money (i.e. money secured through tax revenues). Having written a great many such agreements with 10 school districts in Maryland, I know one does not make "hard" promises with "soft" money.
If indeed the language does exist, then the issue is not as clear-cut as teachers would have you believe. The funds are not available without cutting services (and jobs) from otherdepartments.
If there were any fat in the budget, it has been cut. The next cut goes to the bone.
Police and fire services, which escaped basically untouched last time, probably won't be so lucky the next time. Services to the elderly, the unemployed, the poor, the handicapped and the general citizenry will be profoundly affected.
Inaddition to the county employees already laid off and ones potentially losing their jobs if the teachers get their raise, our agency (theEmployment Training Center) has been made aware of 600 recent or impending layoffs in Howard County in the private sector.
These are all individuals who will require the services to be cut if other departments bear the brunt of the budget crisis.
There is a great deal of industry research and data tracking on dislocated workers. A certain percentage will never fully regain
their earning potential; a percentage will be forced to move. Some will lose their homes; many will experience spousal and family abuse, drugs and alcohol problems, mental illness and worse.
A percentage will never be re-employed. Frankly, I am not at all comfortable with the teachers' ability to identify a child who may be struggling in school due to problems at homewith a laid-off parent, let alone taking appropriate action to help the child.
While discussing the nebulous contract issue, I remind you that some of the benefits taken away from the remaining county employees were required by law and required special legislation to withdraw them.
Contracts come in many forms, and county employees havesome legitimacy to claims of violation of hiring agreements.
As far as the "education will suffer" issue is concerned, the vagueness of the stand is what concerns me most. Are the teachers attacking the loss of school materials and support staff with the same vigor as theloss of a possible raise? Not in the media.
They are saying quiteclearly the lack of raises will cause education to suffer, a hardly veiled threat to lower efficacy on their part.
The myopic approachthat the quality of education as measured by antiquated SAT scores and dubious MFT passage rates should outweigh the opportunity to teachour kids a practical lesson in citizenship and sense of community instressful times is hardly encouraging or impressive.
Instead the message is self-centeredness, reaffirming the "ME" generation.
At least the PTA, in its naivete, expresses its concern in the broad educational sense and not in the raise context.
The messages are clear: the need for expanding education should outweigh all other services, and the teachers' "need" for larger paychecks should outweigh the county employees' need for a paycheck at all.
Ask a teacher about Maslov's Hierarchy of Need; it is fundamental to teaching methods courses. The "let them eat cake" attitude of the teacher quoted as saying that if she didn't get her raise she couldn't buy her new van this summer borders on goulash.
Finally, teachers and their supporters point to the formal training required and attempt to make a correlation to earning potential for comparable training in the private sector.
Sorry, but it doesn't fly. Many of the disciplines of the teachers have little or no value in the private sector. Music, art, history, social science, English and language teachers should be grateful that they are not paid according to their relative worth in the privatesector, regardless of training.
I know because I have had all thecited teacher training and in my line of work perform outplacement for all types of individuals with virtually all levels of education (or lack thereof).
However, because supporting education, in the vague sense, is politically correct, I have no doubt the raise will be restored. The moral foundation for the restoration does not exist, andthe teachers really do have a weak argument.
Other needed services will be cut; peoples' lives will be hurt immeasurably. Meanwhile, our agencies will make plans to assist, as best we can, the swelling number of laid-off public and private sector Howard County citizens and their families; and I will prepare myself for the possibility of becoming one of my own clients.
But a contract is a contract. Or is it? Education will suffer. It has already. I'm not at all impressed.
Editor's note: The writer is services supervisor for the Employment Training Center, a county agency.
WHERE'S THE PUBLIC?
From: Anders Lunt
Columbia
As members of the Citizen Advisory Council forPublic Safety, we (the 21 members of the advisory council) are concerned by the lack of response to public hearings and feedback from residents about the Howard County police.
We have been asked by the county executive to study and evaluate the operations, procedures and performance of the police department in order to improve both the service provided to county residents and relations between police and citizens.
While our various subcommittees have been studying areas such as training, community relations, use of force and internal investigations, information from citizens who have had contact with the police is essential to the success of our work.
We need to hear from persons who have had experiences -- both negative and positive -- with the Howard County Police Department.
This is the only way we can make recommendations which will reinforce good policies and seek to change bad practices withing the department.
Let us hear from you!
Additional public hearings are scheduled for: May 22 at Bushy Park Elementary School, and May 22 at the Florence Bain Senior Center.All begin at 7:30 p.m.
Those unable to attend any of the hearingscan make comments by calling 313-3030 between 7 and 9 p.m. on May 16, or by writing to the Citizens Advisory Council for Public Safety, 3430 Courthouse Drive, Ellicott City, Md. 21043.
CONSTITUTION AND RELIGION
From: James M. Holway
Ellicott City
Ken Stevens ("Keep prayer out of school," April 21, "Readers write") has a history of over 30 years of fighting school busing and prayers in schools.
Now he has the umbrella of the American Civil Liberties Union to expand his platform.
He wants to ban prayer at all school ceremonies and at all government-sponsored events.
He would like Congress or the courts to make all such "religious activities" illegal.
He thinks it is preferable that the teachers teach moral and ethical values to the children. Mr. Stevens wants it to be illegal to have religious classes in the public schools.
The Constitution of the United States Bill of Rights, Article I, says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits providing busing for children to private or to religious schools.
There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits religious displays in schools.
There is nothing that prohibits these activities in public facilities, and Congress can pass no laws to the contrary.
Among the great issues that drove the colonization of a land that eventuallybecame the 13 United States of America were individual rights, freedom of religion, freedom of expression and the ownership of land.
There was a long history of persecution in Europe and in the British Isles as each monarch sought to persecute non-believers in their personal faith.
Our forefathers had as their purpose to provide "freedom of religion from dominance or dictates of any person(s) in the nameof the sovereign government of the United States."
Citizens can exercise their religious beliefs within any public facility or institution.
The government cannot force students to ride buses to non-public schools, and it cannot deny transportation because they are going to a religious institution. That would be a denial of equivalent treatment.
Prayers and pledges of allegiance are proper expressions in public schools. Neither Mr. Stevens nor the Congress of the United States nor the Supreme Court may legally interfere.
During my tenure on the County Council, the entire council approved the practice of providing busing and provided the necessary funds.
When I was in school, the ministers in the community taught religious classes in the public schools. These classes were not part of the required curriculum.
Editor's note: The writer was an 1970-1974 at-large Republican member of the County Council.