money, money, money, money, money, MONEY!

On Friday, Governor O'Malley announced that he would be withdrawing the changes in education funding formulas that took so much money out of our school system. Apparently Baltimore City Schools will see $84 million dollars more than projected but the funding formulas that were already in place will remain the same, including the Thornton Law. The Baltimore Sun applauds O'Malley for his committment to education, including a quote from a member of the Board of School Comissioners stating, "I had great confidence that the governor would continue his strong support of the progress in City Schools and I am very appreciative of the Baltimore City delegation for making this their top priority this year." While I understand that the governor is the figurehead for all that happens within his government, I don't think he had a choice. If I remember my World News correctly, the state had to restore funding cuts as a result of this stimulus plan. If education really was his committment would he have cut so much from the budget in the first place? And is he replenishing all of this money because he is being held responsible for allocating his funds? While a public official taking credit for something they didn't do is hardly surprising, the fact still remains that we now have $84 million dollars for the city schools that we didn't have before. My question is, will any of us see this money? Will all the talk of jobs being lost and schools closing down stop? I know it won't make a difference in my school. In class last week we were talking about small schools and the possibility of tearing down the big complexes and making new, smaller buildings. Seems to me that you could build a lot of small schools with $84 million dollars that you didn't think you would have. At the very least you could fix up the ones you do have so I don't hear about a school closing every day on my way to work because of a lack of heat, or water, or electricity. I would like to hear what O'Malley and Alonso plan to do with the money now that we have it. I don't know if withdrawing the changes to the funding formulas is what needs to happen. Maybe we just need to make different changes.