Lesson plan: Money isn't only answer | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

At various times, school officials have called these spending hikes a broken promise and a moral failing - and, in the oddest turn of phrase, compared them with getting a pogo stick instead of the Chrysler they asked for even though they really need a Mercedes. (Got that?)

"Today, all of our fears have been realized," a school system spokesman said earlier this month, setting the sort of ominous tone one might expect from a TV movie about a nuclear holocaust.

The comment came as Mr. Leopold unveiled his budget, proposing to spend $48 million more on schools this year. Superintendent Kevin Maxwell says he needs at least a $72 million increase just to cover already promised teacher and staff raises. To clarify, the $72 million is the Chrysler - just enough to get by; the $48 million is the pogo stick.

Mr. Leopold said he gave schools as much as he could in tight economic times, and he said they simply need to spend it more wisely than they have in the past. As public officials squabble, It's hard for an average citizen to know what to believe.

But you don't need an accounting degree to know this: There's something badly wrong when a $50 million increase every year, give or take, isn't enough. We need a fundamental shake-up of the school bureaucracy and new thinking, something that's not likely to happen with a capable but conventional leader like Dr. Maxwell.

Money isn't the only answer to the problems with schools. If it were, Baltimore City would have the best schools in the state since its operating budget exceeds $1.1 billion and it spends more per child than Anne Arundel or even Montgomery County.

This year's proposed Anne Arundel budget includes $862 million for schools, or nearly $12,000 for each of 73,000 students. That's half of all county spending. And it's not enough?

Even if the county devoted fully $1 billion to schools this year, something tells me that still wouldn't be enough come next year. Dr. Maxwell would ask for $1.1 billion. There are always more needs, or at least wants: smaller classes, newer buildings, more custodians, secretaries and testing coordinators, to name a few.

Dr. Maxwell paints a dim picture of what will happen without much more money: larger classes, lack of services for special education children, a generally poorer education for tens of thousands of kids.

"If we don't continue to invest in education we're going to get to a tipping point," he told me last week.

Dr. Maxwell and the school board say the problem is underfunding of schools that goes back years or decades; a 2005 study showed the county was $1.5 billion behind in school maintenance and construction.

But he has money, a lot of it.

Money isn't the only answer. But the thing about government bureaucracies is they don't know any other answers. They're not equipped to come up with new ways of doing things that take account of reality; they just demand more money. Nice work if you can get it.

For all the rhetoric about how this money is needed for children and teachers, it helps to remember there were at last count 213 school employees making six figures. It goes without saying that not one of them is a teacher.

By the way, Montgomery and Howard counties, with their vaunted schools, spend just over $12,500 per student. That's not much more than Anne Arundel and less than Baltimore.

"You do the best you can with what you've got," said Alan Friedman, an adviser to Mr. Leopold. "Every person who has to run a family or their own budget has to live with that every day. You do the best you can with what you've got. That's just life."

Dr. Maxwell has all but accused Mr. Leopold of snatching schoolbooks from children's hands. Does he regret anything he's said?

"My job is to advocate for the school district and that's what I do. I'm not apologetic for that," he said. "When he says it's the best he can do, I have to ask: Is it really the best you can do?"

Dr. Maxwell said the debate over school funding raises profound questions about priorities: "What kind of community do you want to live in? What kind of county do you want to live in? What kind of state do you want to live in?"

He's right. But as someone who likes to think big, he should think of more creative answers to those questions than: We need more money. Especially since it's not there.