A loan is a loan, not a grant

A loan is a loan. When you borrow money you have to make sure you can pay it back. Home finance 101, business 101.

Unfortunately the Frederick Arts Council didn't follow those principles. In a disappointing development, the council has requested that both the $50,000 plus interest it borrowed from the City of Frederick and the $50,000 plus interest it borrowed from Frederick County not be paid when it was due, which was September. The city renegotiated its loan with the FAC, but county officials are still debating on what they should do.

Factoring in interest, the amount now exceeds $117,500. The city has agreed to charge a low interest rate of 4 percent on its half. The Arts Council doesn't have to pay that money back until the sale, transfer or demolition of the building or until the building is no longer used as a cultural arts center. What a great deal.

The next question for the Arts Council is what the county will do. The county commissioners are divided on this. Only one of the members of the commissioners was around when the loan was originated in 1998, Bruce Reeder.

Support of the arts is admirable, but fiscal responsibility to the community is equally important, especially in times of economic hardships and limited state funding.

The past board of directors of the Arts Council had good intentions when it presented its case and received the money five years ago. The question is: Where was the long-range plan to make sure these loans were paid back?

Responsibility also lies with the city and the county: why have they allowed five years to pass without establishing a payment plan?

Public art is vital to a community, and having an organization that represents the arts a critical component to the fabric of any community. Our issue is not with the Arts Council's existence, or even the public funding of it.

But responsible business practices are paramount. The Frederick Arts Council has a responsibility to show leadership and fiscal responsibility. Its role is to represent a variety of arts groups -- not just for the sake of art, but in terms of how they represent those artists financially as well.

Does the FAC do justice to the art community by defaulting on this loan? Is there not some other solution or terms that could be beneficial to both the government and the arts community?

The arts community is growing rapidly and brings a great deal in terms of quality of life and of revenue to the community. If art generates the revenue, why would it be a hardship to repay or to make payments on these loans?

Our community had many needs, the arts among them.

The Frederick Arts Council had a helping hand to get started. But a loan is a loan.

This is the most hopeful sign yet, that the costly reforms of the Montgomery County Public Schools made during the last three years are working.

Montgomery taxpayers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for Superintendent Jerry D. Weast's reform program. That money has gone for higher teacher salaries, smaller class sizes in the early grades, extensive teacher training and all-day kindergarten in low-income schools.

The school system reported Tuesday that the expensive all-day kindergarten program, combined with a more rigorous curriculum, seems to be working remarkably well at improving the reading skills of African American and Latino children from low-income families.

This is an important first step at solving one of the most intractable problems of public education -- the achievement gap between white and Asian American students and their African American and Latino peers.

The news from the school system's report is good:

*Students in the 56 full-day kindergarten programs at low-income schools outperformed children in the 63 half-day kindergarten programs in more affluent communities. Of the full-day kindergarteners, 71 percent reached or exceeded the reading benchmark, compared with 69 percent in half-day schools.

*African American and Latino students particularly benefited from full-day kindergarten, with 72 percent of African American students and 60 percent of Latino students reaching the reading benchmark compared with 53 percent among African American students and 48 percent among Latino students in the half-day program.

And the increased reading capabilities seem to last as well. Students who were in the first all-day kindergarten class three years ago continued to do well in reading benchmarks for Grade 2. The school system reported that the greatest gains were seen among African American second-graders (from 46 percent two years ago to 57 percent last year) and Hispanic students (from 35 percent two years ago to 47 percent last year).

If these results hold, Montgomery County may finally be seeing the light at the end of a very long tunnel. The school system has been confounded for years by the problem of teaching poor black and Latino children as well as it has white and Asian children, even as the schools have become increasingly diverse.

To many parents and other critics, the vaunted system seemed to be drifting in the years leading up to Weast's arrival. The hard-charging superintendent confidently told the county that he knew what needed to be done and quickly demolished the old system. He has successfully pushed for remarkable increases in education spending.

He poured most of those new resources into the failing schools in the low-income areas of the east county, and these reading results seem to show that improvements are possible.

Great challenges remain for the schools, however. Immigrant children often enroll in school after kindergarten, lacking the good foundation that the program seems to offer. Poor children still are the ones who transfer from school to school most often as their parents move from rental to rental.

And older children who did not have the benefit of a strong early education are still moving through the system. Their problems might be seen most strikingly in the stagnant SAT scores posted by the system. Those children's lost opportunities can never be recovered.

Both the full-day and half-day kindergarten programs have shown improvement since the new curriculum was introduced. The report said the percentage of all kindergarten children at or above the reading benchmark increased from 39 percent three years ago to 59 percent in 2001-02 and to 70 percent last year, 2002-03.

The value of the full-day program for poor children and immigrant children is unarguable. Whether every child needs a full-day program is less clear, even though the state has mandated the switch in every district in the next four years.

We applaud Weast and his team for these very hopeful results.

The overall concept to allow retired educators to remain teaching while receiving their full pension is a great one. In the past, retirees would have to choose one or the other ­ teacher's salary or pension. Legislation introduced five years ago prevented that decision and allowed school systems to retain seasoned teachers.

This was sorely needed in Prince George's County, where teacher shortages seem to be the norm. Finally, it seemed, the horror stories of students going the school year without consistent or certified teachers seemed to be on the decline.

The legislation, which allowed veteran teachers to work at the top of the pay scale without losing retirement benefits, is due to expire this year. Fortunately, political and education leaders are working to extend it for two more years.

However, over the years, the program has gone astray.

The original bill sought to use these teachers in the poorest performing school systems. Instead, teachers have been allowed to pick their schools, leading most to work at high performing schools.

In addition, teachers are no longer brought in at top pay. In a move made in the past year to save money, returning retirees are coming in at the bottom of the pay scale.

Fortunately, Del. James E. Proctor Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Brandywine, the originator of the bill, the county school board and state Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick are fixing the glitch in the school selection process. As they work to extend the legislation, they hope to implement the rule that these highly qualified teachers help where they are needed the most ­ at poor performing schools.

They are definitely on the right track here.

Where their efforts may go awry, however, is in the pay.

It is unfair to require highly qualified, certified teachers with years of experience to come in at the pay scale of a new teacher. You would never hire anyone with years of experience at a new hire's salary, and that rule should stand with our retired teachers.

They are being hired to use their years of experience to make great strides in our school system. Their pay should reflect that expectation.

Granted, the change in their pay scale came at a time when the school board needed to make more than $50 million in budget cuts. Schools CEO Andre Hornsby required those in the program to transfer to poor performing schools, knowing many would instead opt to retire again. He was right. Program enrollees dropped from 600 to 300. When some chose to come back into the program, they were greeted with the lower salary.

"I am not a happy camper," said Jeff Pieplow, who has been teaching in the county for 33 years. "Last year, I made $64,000 plus my retirement. This year I am making $24,500 plus my retirement."

Hornsby's efforts to redirect the legislation toward its original intent to benefit poor performing schools is commendable. However, the legislation did not request that seasoned veterans come in at the bottom of the totem pole in pay.

Since retirees are able to keep 100 percent of their retirement pay, it is understandable that they don't need top pay when they return to the school system, but there has to be some middle ground.

Those involved should be commended for working to extend such a worthwhile program. However, there is no need to insult these much-needed educators in the process.

Stone Manor II parents in Eldersburg are trying to keep their children from walking to Freedom Elementary School. They want them to be able to ride the bus to school because they say walking is not safe.

The children have been riding a bus ride to school since the development was under construction, but with its completion they fall under the rule that students who live within a mile of school must walk.

Parents claim that the walk is unsafe, and that should they lose the bus they will drive their children, adding to an already-congested traffic situation at Freedom.

Supervisor of Transportation Services Jim Doolan denied the parents' appeal of a decision that rejected their request for an exemption to county policy. Now it is up to the superintendent; the process could go further if denials continue: the county board of education, the state board and even the courts. Hopefully, it will not go that far and Superintendent Charles Ecker will resolve the problem.

Normally we would not agree with the parents, because usually parents get much too emotional about issues but in this situation they are right.

The route that most of the affected students would have to take to school does not include any sidewalks, with the exception of a very short stretch along Route 32 or any patrols, crossing guards, or crosswalks.

While it is unlikely they will be kidnapped ­ children walk to schools every day and it very rarely happens ­ they could, however, be hit by a vehicle. Granted the latter doesn't happen a lot either but most children who walk have sidewalks or patrols or neighborhoods to walk in, not onto a busy highway.

While it is the parents' responsibility to provide adequate supervision and there is no such thing as a completely safe walking area or a completely safe bus stop, there are acceptable levels of safety that make it acceptable to walk to school or to a bus stop, Doolan wrote the parents. However in this case we do not see an acceptable level of safety.

Granted they could walk on the roadway without incident but we don't think we really want to teach our children to walk on the road.

School board policy allows for exceptions, discretion is built in. Common sense has to be used.

We agree with the parents and urge the superintendent to let the students continue to ride to school.