Howard schools should protect computer course
During the 1999-2000 school year, Howard County will be denying children who are intersted in math and science the opportunity to attend a higher-level computer course.
The course is titled Computer Science III AP.
The reason this occurred was "budgetary" constraints. But if I understand the course concept, it makes a lot of economic sense to me.
This course was going to be taught at a Howard County high school during the evening and all the other high school students in the county would attend the one course.
In this wealthy county that spends a lot of time and money on Maryland School Performance Assessment Program and achievement scores, officials are forgetting the high school student who is trying to excel in her educational career. When it counts for college placement, Howard County is falling short on its commitment to teach higher-level curriculum courses.
Howard County needs to spend more time and money on the children who want to succeed and are not in special programs such as the Tech Magnet.
With the national media highlighting the difficulty of females to get the necessary education in the sciences, why does Howard County want to be known as the school system that denies children the right and opportunity to excel in math, science and especially computer science.
Andrew I. Wolkstein
Ellicott City
Maryland's tax math nightmare
The preparation of Maryland individual tax returns has suddenly become a lot more burdensome.
The other evening as I was filling out my Form 502 and merrily transcribing figures from my Federal 1040, I suddenly came across a group of lines on page 2 that had never been there before.
Those lines get you from the "Adjusted Maryland Tax" to the "Total Maryland Local Tax," 12 lines in all, plus three new worksheets to be worked through. Last year, there were four lines and no worksheets.
The cause of this added complexity is a whopping 1/8 of 1 percent cut granted by the state in 1998 from the former 5 percent top tax rate.
However, most of the counties were unwilling to take any reduction in their piggyback tax income.
The Maryland General Assembly succumbed to the counties and as a solution devised an insane mathematical nightmare whereby on Form 502 one must calculate a fictitious "Local Taxable Net Income," which is slightly higher than the real "Taxable Net Income."
The county piggyback tax is then based on this figure.
Perhaps the General Assembly is trying to keep up with Congress, which last year imposed an equally annoying jump in complexity in figuring the federal tax on Schedule D.
I am incensed by this needless and ridiculous complication that has been placed upon Maryland taxpayers.
I am sure that this is driving many average citizens who previously did just fine in preparing their tax forms by hand to seek the assistance of professional preparers, to purchase computer software, or, at least, to tear out their hair.
George Stiegler
Columbia
Out to lunch on 'The Out-of-Towners'
Normally, the opinion of movie critics need not be addressed. However, Ann Hornaday's recent critique of the performers in "The-Out-of-Towners" deserves comment.
She stated (and I am paraphrasing) that even the performances of Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn could not make this a worthwhile movie.
Their performances could, and did, make the movie worthwhile.
Last weekend in a packed theater nearly everyone, both young and old, were constantly laughing during this movie.
It takes far more than funny lines to have a successful comedy.
Both of these performers, using their skillful timing and body language turned what would have been a disastrous film into an enjoyable one to watch.
Ms. Hornaday, who usually deserves at least two stars for her critiques, earns less than one star for this one.
Ronald W. Farabee
Columbia
With trees and hawks, who needs ballfields?
Howard County Recreation and Parks needs to learn what a park is. There is a wonderful little tract of land in the overdeveloped eastern part of Howard County with rolling meadows, groves of trees, wetlands and a stream, where red tail hawks, Canada goose, blue birds, egrets, foxes and deer live.
Yes, at the moment the name Meadowbrook Park is very appropriate, but if Howard County puts in its proposed Meadowbrook Park Sports Complex, the word "park" will no longer apply. The meadow, the brook and the park will only be names. A park is a tract of land kept in its natural state. There is nothing natural about a major multi-sports facility with four lighted ball fields, two basketball courts, tennis courts, a roller/hockey rink, public restrooms and a 300-car parking lot.
Why doesn't Howard County know this? By the time it learns, it will be too late.
Mark Praetorius
Ellicott City
Greenway group did consider environment I would appreciate adding some information to the debate concerning the Patapsco Heritage Greenway project, in response to an April 4 letter by Lee Walker Oxenham ("Patapsco Greenway -- or is it greed way?"). As one of many who participated in the process, there is more to the project than is being discussed. It is incorrect to believe that concerned citizens who volunteered their time and effort with the Pataspco Heritage Greenway committee did not consider the needs and concerns of Patapsco Valley State Park or the surrounding environment. I heard a statement at a Sierra Club meeting that PHG supporters seek to "co-opt public land for private purposes." The reality is that Patapsco Valley State Park, with Maryland Department of Natural Resources' agreement, chose to join the Patapsco Heritage Greenway effort and was never co-opted. As I recall, Maryland's new Heritage Areas tourism program offered the state park access to new dollars to replace those lost in budget and personnel cuts. The Heritage Trail could have a paved "spine" and natural-surface "spurs" leading to interesting historical sites placed, as much as possible, on existing paved roads and trails in the park. Thanks to Patapsco Heritage Greenway efforts, the Maryland Historical Trust inventoried and researched ruins along the Patapsco River. The sites are now protected both by their location in the park and by the regulations of the trust. Consequently, there is public benefit, not sinister "private purpose" here. At that same meeting, I also heard references to "developers of the PHG" and real estate "development community" used interchangeably. This is laughably incorrect. There is no basis for connecting "the developers of PHG," i.e., a nice group of concerned citizens and community representatives, with the "development community," presumably businesses that buy land for residential and commercial construction. But the technique has angered or scared less-involved citizens who love the Pataspco River and are willing to fight for its wellbeing. The reality is that Patapsco Heritage Greenway's record for hands-on, grassroots environmental action is impressive. It has organized and sponsored environmental activities involving hundreds of local volunteers, including: * Public education and action: A program called Greenway Guides was invented and launched by PHG to become an environmental service club of working adults trained as naturalists to lead hikes along the Patapsco River. The guides have taught more than 200 guests, including scouts, about the workings of ecological systems and the history of the river. * River restoration: Clean-ups and trail maintenance days were conducted, one along River Road and one in the state park, involving 140 volunteers. The lower end of the Millrace Trail in the park was formally adopted by PHG and was reconstructed by the Maryland Conservation Corps at PHG's request. * Selection by "Volunteer Maryland!" as an environmental service site in 1997. * Two Eagle Scout projects: "The Eagles Walk" honors the Patapscos of the Piscataway tribe, Algonquin language group and parallels the river on the Baltimore County side. The second Eagle Scout project was a catwalk and "loop trail" across the Millrace Trail's millrace. Hike guests could then contrast a more natural area to one so thoroughly disrupted by construction of the millrace. It could have been so much more constructive had the "green" community pressed for increased funding for Patapsco Valley State Park while joining the effort to define and apply current environmental-trail science to the park, and then to help invent a way to share with others the rich history of our area. Cynthia D. Hirshberg Ellicott City
The writer chaired the Ellicott City Restoration Foundation's Tiber-Hudson Watershed Partnership in 1997-98.
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