Saving Families
Editor: The Maryland Department of Human Resources totally supports the concept of redirecting funds from foster-care placements to expand services to families that will prevent the need for out-of-home care, ("The Foster Care Solution," May 12).
We are also staunch advocates for the expansion of the Intensive Family Services Program, which we began in 1986 and is now operating in 15 jurisdictions. This is not just a test program. It is a model which has received national recognition, including the American Public Welfare Association's innovative programming award, and has been replicated in a dozen other states.
But perhaps our most significant achievement has been the preservation of 5,600 families from dissolution and dislocation and the diversion of more than 14,550 children from foster care.
It is true that more families could be seen and more placements averted if more staff and funds were available. However, diverting foster-care payments for this purpose still requires that sufficient funds remain in the budget to cover the cost of children already in care. The department does not have a $5 million surplus in the foster-care program.
Due to the manner in which the foster care budget has historically been developed, there is approximately a $5 million deficit in the foster-care administrative budget and a $5 million surplus in the foster-care payments budget. In total, the program is expected to be balanced.
Given the changing state revenue picture and escalating numbers of applicants for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps and general public assistance, any initiatives that involve a further commitment of state funds and personnel, even with the promise of additional cost-savings down the road, must be approached cautiously.
Carolyn W. Colvin.
Baltimore.
The writer is secretary of the Department of Human Resources.
German Bases
Editor: I think the idea of Germany wanting to establish military bases on U.S. soil is not only great but a cost-effective one.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney wants to close some U.S. bases to save money. Why not offer some of these bases to the Germans? The Germans could take over the facilities, pay the U.S. rent and provide trickle-down economic effects to the local communities.
From the military side this would be a plus also. American soldiers and airmen could train with the Germans right here in the U.S. This would be very cost-effective for the U.S. military. My own Air National Guard unit could save thousands of dollars in travel expenses, yet still train side by side with our German counterparts.
Finally, our cultures would be enhanced. Americans and Germans would learn a great deal more about each other by working and playing together.
William E. Hensel.
Baltimore.
'Bout Time, Doc
Editor: The pundits of the American Medical Association have finally come to the conclusion that health care in the U.S. is sorely lacking; that the U.S. and South Africa are the only two nations in the world without a national health service for all its citizens.
Our present system has been failing for some time, with millions of people without health protection and with outrageous cost inflation. Government officials, concerned with the mired mishmash of present health services, assorted clinics, insurance programs and oodles of paperwork, continue to say they support a comprehensive health plan but don't know how to develop a financing method that would not burden our already tight national budget.
Certainly our government is not stupid enough to let it ride at that. The president, or the Congress, can appoint a committee of knowledgeable people from business, insurance, medicine and laymen to visit and study every nation with a national health system and find how they finance and manage their programs. If they can do it, we can do it, even better.
J. Carmel.
Baltimore.
A First Step
Editor: Regarding your May 4 editorial, "Wrong Roadblock," you made a good point. No one whose movement was blocked by disabled protesters could do anything at the time to change the situation being protested. But you didn't take the point far enough.
The next day, anyone who was stuck, thwarted, immobilized or otherwise caught on a Social Security parking lot might have identified better with the thousands of disabled persons whose lives every day are stuck, thwarted, immobilized or otherwise caught by being forced to live in nursing homes and hospitals. And that identity might have been a first step toward more solidarity between disabled and nondisabled persons, in what has become a very real civil rights movement.
Perhaps many were alienated. Hopefully, some were not. To those who understand the issue of restricted freedom a little better now, welcome to the movement.
Gloria Ray Carpeneto.
Baltimore.
The writer is executive director of the Maryland Center for Independent Living.
Ouch! Stereotypes
Editor: What was the point of Andrei Codrescu's critique of Utah and Mormon culture in his Perspective piece, "Jesus Speaks at the Mountaintop," in The Sun, May 13? I am a Mormon and have lived in Utah. I, too, have criticized my own religious heritage for its frequent cultural shallowness, over-zealousness and religio-socio-political ironies. Why, then, did Mr. Codrescu's article perturb me?
I won't even speak to whether Mr. Codrescu's sentiments should be considered "politically correct"; presumably it is all right to LTC launch a diatribe against 20th century Mormonism since it is a right-wing, Republican, white and wealthy conservative church, its pews overflowing with Marriotts, Osmonds and pregnant spouses of CIA agents. (Of course, you could visit the Mormon congregations where you will find, in addition to middle-class white families, poor single mothers, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Amerians and African-Americans).
I am perturbed because of Mr. Codrescu's apparent bilious contempt for Mormons or any members of a religious group who appear to be in his view low-brow, fanatical, politically incorrect clowns. Stereotypical Mormon authoritarian and Philistine conservatism appears to be a windmill in Mr. Codrescu's quixotic quest. His one-sided appreciation of the multi-faceted movement of modern Mormonism and Utah culture seems less than worthy of The Sun's opinion pages.
Edgar C. Snow Jr.
Sparks.
Out of His Field
Editor: Even fledgling writers are told to write only about subjects that they know well. What a shame that Andrei Codrescu (Opinion * Commentary article, May 13) attempts to write about and poke fun at the Mormon Church, about which he obviously knows so little.
Louisa Kahn.
Towson.
Grads' Debts
Editor: It is graduation time throughout the land. Be it high school, college or graduate school, it is a time to be savored. As they take their bows and move on to their next plateau, may "the grads" take time to ponder the debts they owe -- to their forebearers for their inherent abilities, to their instructors who assisted in honing and perfecting those abilities, to those who provided the educational opportunities and encouragement. May they pledge to use that which has been bestowed upon them to promote to the maximum the fulfillment of the evolutionary process.
. Bernard Hihn
Baltimore.
Charter Schools
Editor: The recently published study, "Baltimore and Beyond," makes much of a concept that the authors feel would solve the multitude of problems faced by the Baltimore City public school system. This concept outlined in the study done by Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson is called charter schools, and would allow any group of educators, any civic organization, any university or any church to start a school, recruit students to attend their schools and be certified by an independent chartering board operated by the state.
This plan is presented as being similar to voucher plans which allow students to attend any school, public, private, or religious, that their parents may choose.
Charter schools are not new on the school reform scene. In fact, members of the Baltimore Teachers Union and its national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, endorsed the concept at a national convention in 1988. Unlike the authors of the "Baltimore and Beyond" study, our vision of charter schools has specific and definite guidelines that would ensure a quality and equal education for all students. This is where we part company with the authors.
When we approved the concept at that 1988 convention, we were looking for creative ways, innovative methods and different organization of time, resources and people in order to produce more learning for more students. We found that the charter school concept, which is actually a school-within-a-school, met our needs. Our proposal endorses a procedure that would enable teams of teachers and other education employees to submit and implement proposals to set up their own autonomous public schools within their own school buildings. Charter schools would be located at school sites, creating an interaction between faculty, staff, parents and students in charter schools and those in the regular program.
In our vision, like the true charter school concept, roles within the school system will change, from the superintendent to the instructor to the parent and including even the student. Teachers and other persons who are involved in teaching will be allowed the freedom to teach, without being restricted by mandates from North Avenue, but whose students must meet high standards. We must remember that no restructuring plan, including charter schools, will succeed unless we maintain higher student achievement as the rationale for any change.
The BTU feels strongly that this restructuring plan will be the wave of the future for our students, allowing Baltimore City students to reach their full potential. In the future, part of a schools restructuring plan might include a charter school plan, where there might be several schools-within-schools, all with different goals and different program. Another school might be using an entirely different program in order to achieve its goals. -- The BTU feels that our restructuring plan offers faculties, parents and students the flexibility to use different methods or models without mandating or advocating any specific reform method.
What authors Peirce and Johnson are advocating is a mandated program, regardless of goals or outcomes to be determined. While a true charter school plan has many advantages, some of which I listed above, it should not be considered the final word in school reform. That should be left up to individual schools and their stakeholders.
Irene B. Dandridge.
Baltimore.
The writer is president of the Baltimore Teachers Union.