Leave No Rich Child Behind

Washington Post Editorial
Wednesday, May 19, 2004; Page A22



THE HOUSE of Representatives plans to take up a bill this week that would provide new tax breaks to families earning as much as $309,000, while doing next to nothing for those at the low end of the income scale. The bill, which could come up as early as today, is the most egregious part of a House tax-cutting spree that altogether would add more than $500 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to estimates by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center.

The House would not only make permanent the $1,000-per-child tax credit enacted as part of the 2001 tax cut but would dramatically increase the income limits for eligibility. Currently, married families with incomes of up to $110,000 receive the full credit; the bill would more than double the income ceiling, to $250,000. Under existing law, families with two children and incomes up to $149,000 receive a partial tax credit; the bill would make that partial credit available to families with two children and income of between $250,000 and $289,000; families with three children would be entitled to the partial credit up to an income of $309,000.

This is unnecessary, misguided and irresponsible. Families at that income level have already enjoyed significant benefits from the recent tax cuts; they don't need an extra subsidy to help support their children. While tax cut proponents argue that lowering marginal tax rates or cutting dividend and capital gains taxes helps promote economic growth, there is no such claim to be made for the child tax credit. And the increase in the income ceiling would cost $69 billion through 2014, $87 billion if you count increased interest payments on the extra debt.

House Republicans have the gall to propose all this -- and many House Democrats don't seem to have the spine to oppose it -- while providing almost no extra help for the poorest families. Currently, low-income families who earn more than $10,750 are eligible for a small refundable tax credit. (These are families that pay payroll taxes but don't earn enough to be subject to paying income taxes, so they get a check back from the government.) For example, a married family with two children and an income of $12,000 gets $125 per child. The House bill would speed up by one year a planned increase in the size of this credit, giving low-income families a one-time average benefit of $150 per child. This remedies -- belatedly -- last year's mean-spirited omission of these families from the accelerated increase in the child tax credit enjoyed by higher-income taxpayers. The cost of this meager improvement: $1.8 billion.

For families earning less than $10,750, however, the House bill would do nothing. Thus, a family with a parent working full-time at the minimum wage ($10,300) would get no benefit from the bill. A better-off but still low-income family with two children would get a one-time $300 average tax break ($150 per child). By contrast, two-child families with earnings between $150,000 and $250,000 get $22,000 in extra tax breaks over the next 10 years ($1,000 per child per year). This is bad social policy, bad tax policy, and bad fiscal policy. You'd think they'd be embarrassed, but they're not.

'Alternate' testing for poor students baffles experts

May 19, 2004
School officials and education experts are perplexed by a county school board resolution calling for "alternate methods" of testing for students living in poverty on state exams that will be required for high school graduation.

The resolution asks the state school board and Department of Education to "[e]nsure that the [High School Assessment] program includes alternate methods of ascertaining student skills and knowledge that can be accessed by students with disabilities, English language learners, low-income students and other students with special challenges."

Special education students and students learning English have been discussed as needing special attention on high-stakes state tests in the past. But singling out low-income students has raised questions for some state board members, who were sent the resolution after the county board unanimously passed it last month.

"I would want to know what the definition is that the people who wrote that had in mind," said state board member Jo Ann T. Bell of Bowie. "Are they saying that low-income people can't learn, aren't learning, aren't at the highest point of the learning scale? Because that's not been my experience."

Joseph A. Hawkins, an education researcher at Westat and a longtime advocate for a Montgomery charter school for minority students, said he has never heard of alternate tests for poor students.

"It sounds like something they're making up on the fly here," he said.

Kati Haycock, director of the nonprofit policy group Education Trust, was similarly surprised to hear of the resolution. The Washington, D.C., trust tracks national education issues.

"I've absolutely never seen that before," she said. "One certainly needs to keep in mind that when these young people are out in the work world, no one is going to say, 'You can't read, but I'll hire you because I know you were low-income when you grew up.'"

The resolution is not asking for alternate tests for low-income students, explained county board member Patricia B. O'Neill (Dist. 3) of Bethesda, who proposed the resolution.

What the school board wants, she said, is to make sure that low-income students receive tutoring and remedial aid if they do not pass the critical tests.

On Tuesday, the state school board will hold hearings in Baltimore on how to use state assessment tests as a high school graduation requirement beginning in 2009.

The state board is scheduled to vote in mid-June on a plan that would require students to earn a minimum combined score on four state assessments at the end of four required courses: algebra I; biology; ninth-grade English; and national, state and local government. The state is also considering moving the English test to the end of 10th grade, instead of ninth.

While special education students receive Individualized Education Plans that may require alternative tests or accommodations such as more time to take tests, "There is no IEP if your child is poor," O'Neill said.

What has O'Neill and her Montgomery colleagues worried is that while a majority of state students failed the tests last year, students from poor families especially struggled.

"We're categorizing it because we know poverty is a measure that affects [test scores]," said county board member Gabriel Romero (Dist. 1) of Montgomery Village.

More than 65 percent of students statewide failed the English test in 2003 and nearly 48 percent failed the algebra test.

By contrast, 83 percent of students statewide who receive free and reduced-price meals -- an indicator of poverty that districts use -- failed the English test in 2003. Nearly 69 percent of those students also failed the algebra test.

"In terms of the way the resolution is written, they're saying, 'We've seen the impact data and we see which students right now are going to be the most at risk of not getting a diploma,'" said Theresa Alban, acting director of the county's Office of Shared Accountability.

Addressing low scores gets trickier when students fall into more than one subgroup, Romero said.

The state breaks out test results for a variety of subgroups, including special education students, students with limited English skills, FARMs students and by ethnicity and gender.

"One of the problems we have is there's a huge overlap between low income and ESOL students, for instance," Romero said.

Hawkins said he wonders why, with so many students failing the tests, the county board singled out impoverished students.

"There's a subgrouping on some other variables," he said. "Why not have accommodations for black kids who have lower passing rates? ... I don't see why someone would want to go out of their way to make accommodations for someone just because they receive FARMs."

Bell agreed.

"We have to be very careful about what we paint with a broad brush as the abilities of that child," she said.

Schools should address those problems with additional help, not different tests, said the Education Trust's Haycock.

"The needs that they have are needs in instruction, they're not needs in assessment accommodations," she said.

Hawkins agreed.

"The tests look, I almost want to say, basic," he said. "And if we're saying, 'Poor kids can't pass a basic skills test' ... then we're in pretty bad shape here."

Students will take this year's tests beginning Monday. With four years remaining for the state to implement the tests as a graduation requirement, county school officials said they hope the state board will proceed with caution. The resolution calls for the state board to delay a vote until at least December.

Hawkins doubts the tests will become a requirement for a diploma.

"I've said in the past that I don't see the Maryland assessments ever really becoming mandatory," he said. "I stick by that. So all these maneuvers to delay it and water it down ... are just politicking."

Financial Literacy Training Seminar Offered

Montgomery County’s Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) and Consumer Action, a national nonprofit organization, are offering a free, one-day “train the trainer” financial literacy seminar. The seminar will be held on Thursday, June 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, 4805 Edgemoor Lane.

As part of the DHCA and its Division of Consumer Affair’s (DCA) financial literacy campaign effort, the seminar will teach participants fundamental money management skills. Financial counselors, social workers, program coordinators, educators and other interested individuals who provide financial counseling or financial management services are being targeted for the seminar. The purpose of the workshop is to help individuals and agencies teach their clients basic money management techniques, including: preparing a budget; handling credit problems; learning essential basic banking skills; creating spending plans; balancing accounts; and setting financial goals.

The class is free of charge but, due to limited seating, pre-registration is required. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. To register, call Myriam Torrico at 240-777-3627. DCA, the County’s consumer protection agency, investigates thousands of complaints each year involving automotive sales and repairs, new home purchases, home improvements, credit issues, retail sales, internet services and most other consumer transactions. DCA provides pre-purchase information to consumers, as well as speakers to the community on consumer issues.

For more information and advice, call 240-777-3636 or visit DCA’s website at http://montgomerycountymd.gov/consumer

Response to Governor Ehrlich's Dismissive Remarks Regarding Multiculturalism

May 12/ 04

Governor
Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
Annapolis, Maryland

Dear Governor Ehrlich,

Your remarks last week regarding multiculturalism as "bunk" and "crap" were outrageous and morally repugnant. As the mother of two wonderful, bicultural daughters and the wife of a Latino, I find your statements a direct offense to my family, friends and the diverse citizens of our state.

When we lived in El Salvador several years ago, my daughters were taught to be proud of their dual heritage. They acquired Spanish as their first language but I continued to speak English with them at home. They did not initially understand why it was so important for them to learn this strange language (English). Now that we live in the United States, they have realized how valuable it is to know two languages. English within a short time became their dominant language, but my husband and I have worked hard so that they maintain Spanish as their second language (and now my oldest daughter is learning her third language - Latin - at Blair High School).

Because of our hard work, our daughters are proud of their double heritage, and they are able to converse with friends and family from many countries. If someone asks them "what" they are, they say they are both: both Anglo and Latino. Most people respond very positively to this. Some, unfortunately, out of ignorance or intolerance, have stereotyped them or made assumptions about who they are and what they are capable of accomplishing in their lives. They have been the targets of derogatory names and hate speech by both children and adults, and have witnessed their friends and cousins being bullied and harassed because they look "darker" or speak with an accent.

I have worked as an ESOL teacher and now as an educator of ESOL teachers and I can assure you that the vast majority of immigrants want desperately to learn English. But this cannot come at the cost of their own cultural and ethnic identities. As a nation of immigrants, we need to embrace a wide diversity of cultures, languages, races and ethnicities. That is one of the characteristics that makes our country and the state of Maryland so wonderful. Yet with one sweeping statement you have trashed a huge segment of our people.

As a public figure, you have the responsibility to represent ALL of the residents of your state, not just the people who look like you and talk like you. Instead, your irresponsible remarks have served to stir up hatred and xenophobia, and show a disgraceful ignorance of our country's history and our current diversity. After you made this unthinking statement, CASA de Maryland, where my husband is the president, began to receive numerous hate calls telling people they should "just go back to their countries." Will my daughters be the next victims of this kind of hatred? Because of you, will they have to feel less secure as they walk to school or to the park? You must revoke this abhorrent message and apologize publicly before more serious consequences can occur.

Sincerely,

Dr. Barbara Dole Acosta
Adjunct Professor
Multicultural Education
George Mason University

[Event]First Annual Doug Duncan Unity Day in the Park - May 22, 2004

Saturday, May 22

1:00pm-3:00pm

Rain or Shine



Glen Echo Park Bumper Car Pavillion

7300 MacArthur Blvd

Glen Echo, MD

Montgomery County Makes Historic Wind Purchase

CLEAN ENERGY BREAKING NEWS!

Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan and Councilmember
George Leventhal announced today that Montgomery County,
Prince George's County, County agencies (such as the school
system, parks and planning, wssc, etc.) and almost a dozen
municipalities have all pooled together to make the single
largest local government wind purchase in United States
history!

I was fortunate to speak at the press conference today. My
statement is on the cleanenergypartnership.org web site.

The Montgomery County Press Release is here:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Apps/News/press/DisplayInfo
.cfm?ItemID=895

This is a great day for Montgomery County and I'm glad the
Clean Energy Partnership could help make it happen.

QUICK ACTION:
Please take a second to email Mr. Duncan and Mr. Leventhal
to thank them for buying wind power for Montgomery County.

George Leventhal, Montgomery County Council:

Councilmember.Leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov


Doug Duncan, Montgomery County Executive:

douglas.duncan@montgomerycountymd.gov


Here's to more clean energy victories!

[Event] Congressman Chris Van Hollen Town Meeting - Monday May 24th, 2004

TOWN HALL MEETING

WITH

CONGRESSMAN CHRIS VAN HOLLEN


ALL RESIDENTS FROM THE 8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT INVITED TO PARTICIPATE




Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD-08) will convene a town hall meeting for residents of the entire Eighth Congressional district. The Congressman will report to residents about the activities of the 108th Congress, including important issues such as the economy, education, health care, homeland security, and transportation. The Congressman and his staff will answer questions and listen to the opinions of those in the audience. All residents of the 8th Congressional district are invited to participate.



WHEN: Monday, May 24, 2004

7:30-9 PM

WHERE: Gwendolyn Coffield Community Center (Social Hall) 2450 Lyttonsville Road Silver Spring, MD

QUESTIONS: Please call (301) 424-3501



Directions: From Colesville Road (MD-384) and East West Highway (MD-410), go West on East-West Highway (MD-410). Turn Right onto Grubb Road. Turn slight Right onto Lyttonsville Road. Coffield Community Center is on the right.