A city schools budget that will benefit all our students
The Sun's article "Schools seek millions more for disabled" (March 23) on the Baltimore City public school system's proposed fiscal 2000 budget incorrectly stated that we are proposing a $15 million increase in expenditures to support special education. The fact is that this amount reflects an increase in the fiscal 2000 proposed budget over the adopted fiscal 1999 budget -- not over our 1999 expenditures.
The article also overlooked the fact that special education spending includes support services for all students -- not just those with special needs.
It is unfortunate that the article devoted so much space to special education spending. My staff has worked diligently over the last several months to prepare a budget that reflects our efforts to implement the reforms outlined in a Senate bill by enacting our master plan. These initiatives are critical if we are to truly reform the Baltimore City public school system.
This year's budget request contains significant funding for the school reforms contained in our master plan: maintaining the reading curriculum, implementing the mathematics curriculum, reducing class size in grades one through five; placing reading teachers in middle schools and resource teachers in elementary schools, providing additional support for high school teachers, providing resource teachers in elementary schools, extending the work year for new teachers and adding transitional programs and new management systems.
I am sure your reporters will continue to follow the process as the city's Board of School Commissioners considers the fiscal 2000 budget. It is my hope that future articles highlight the school system's solid initiatives to improve student achievement and system accountability.
Robert Booker, Baltimore
The writer is chief executive officer of Baltimore City Public Schools.
Are we cutting crime of just moving it?
Your editorial "Reducing city killings by seizing illegal guns" (March 28) draws attention to the importance of getting illegal guns off of the streets. Scientific research supports the claim that increasing gun seizures reduces gun violence, including homicide.
However, the second claim in the editorial is far more troublesome. You claim that dispersing crime and drug dealing from locations such as high-rise public housing projects has the effect of spreading crime around to nearby areas. On this point, you wander far afield from scientific evidence. Substantial research that the National Academy of Sciences has cited shows just the opposite: The concentration of crime-risk factors in small geographic areas produce a net increase in crime.
Moreover, your evidence about displacement caused by the Glendening-Townsend administration's Hot Spots initiative is highly anecdotal and fails to identify any source. How much crime is displaced from that initiative's target areas is a complex statistical question, on which the University of Maryland's Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice is working to provide a partial answer. For statistical reasons, it is premature to answer this question now, but we will make public the results of our research as they become available.
In the meantime, I would caution my fellow readers of your distinguished publication to distinguish anecdotal from systematic evidence.
Lawrence W. Sherman, College Park
The writer is professor and chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park.
'Technology park' could revive community
There is no consensus in the Ednor Gardens community on the fate of Memorial Stadium and, since the Ravens left, there has been uncertainty about the site's future. Happily, the Dome Corp. has presented an innovative proposal that would preserve the stadium and convert it into spaces for a number of science and technology-related businesses.
This "technology park" would provide a significant number of decent-paying jobs and could attract residents who would contribute to a stable tax base for the city while preserving the stadium as a landmark.
In an incomplete canvas of several blocks in Ednor Gardens, it was easy to find more than 100 signers for a petition in support of this proposal.
The conversion of Memorial Stadium -- like the creative reuses of the warehouse at Camden Yards, the American Can Co., the Power Plant and Port Discovery -- could rejuvenate and stabilize the surrounding community while honoring and preserving a unique part of Baltimore's past.
Anna Mae Becker, Baltimore
355th Fighter Group financed memorial
It was wonderful to see the 355th Fighter Group memorial displayed on the front of the Travel section March 28. Members of that group value and hold dear a long-lasting relationship with many English people in the Steeple Marden area.
However, we respectfully advise that funding for the memorial came from our membership's contributions, not from the British, as your caption suggested. Likewise, the stained glass window in St. Catherine's Church, Litlington was the effort of association members, with major design and construction by an American, John Dobbertin Jr.
E. Mason Hendrickson, Hagerstown
The writer is a member of the 355th Fighter Group Association.
Serbian brutality must be stopped
Sara Erica Haus' letter ("Would NATO interfere with rebellion here," March 27) asking if NATO would bomb Baton Rouge if the Acadians decided to rebel makes an argument I have heard several times with slightly different variations, such as Mexicans in Arizona and New Mexico or Cubans in Miami.
But such arguments leave out one important point: I don't think the U.S. Armed Forces would shell Acadian or Mexican or Cuban enclaves until the civilians fled and then systematically burn their homes, bomb their stores and massacre the remaining unarmed men and boys. I am also sure that any U.S. government would go to the peace table to negotiate and seek to find a peaceful solution before the fighting became so severe.
In Kosovo, as earlier in Croatia and Bosnia, the Yugoslav army is creating a humanitarian disaster by shelling civilian targets, burning villages and massacring the survivors. I will grant that no side in the decade-old Balkan wars has had clean hands, but the common denominator in all of these conflicts has been Serbian aggression, led by Slobodan Milosevic and his brutal armed forces. Now we have President Milosevic refusing to talk peace and murdering Albanians who signed the peace proposal.
When the Allies found the Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II, we promised "never again." It is time we lived up to that promise, not only in the Balkans but throughout the world.
Eric D. Percy, Columbia
Service clubs require effort, but bring ample rewards
As an active member of the Hereford/Parkton Lions Club, I was very interested in your article on service organizations ("End of 'glory days of service clubs,' " March 31). I believe that it is not just career pressures that keep people from joining such organizations, but disinterest in our communities.
Many people who tell me they don't have time to come to our 90-minute bimonthly Lions meetings will admit that they spend 20 hours or more a week watching television or playing computer games.
In the "glory days of service clubs," membership in the Lions, Moose or Kiwanis was not only a way to help others, but also to socialize and connect with neighbors. How many people today know more names of "ER" characters than of people on their own block?
In the Hereford/Parkton Lions, as in many other service clubs, about 50 percent of the members are women, and a significant percentage are well below retirement age. Many have demanding careers, families and other responsibilities. My husband (also a member) and I are attorneys with two children under four. We make the time for meetings and projects because community service is a priority for us. Besides, we've made friends and have a lot of fun.
Joining a worthwhile service organization requires making a conscious effort to get off the couch and back into the community. But believe me, that effort will be rewarded.
D. Kathleen Rus, Parkton
Pub Date: 4/05/99