Letter to the Editor, Howard County Times

May 15, 2008

Senator Allan H. Kittleman

West Friendship 

Governor O'Malley must be really worried about his dismal approval ratings.  In his letter, (We've accelerated funding for Howard school building, May 8, 2008), he heaps praise upon himself for providing school construction funding to Howard County. 

However, if you examine the entire O'Malley record on education, you will see that state aid to education in Howard County will be significantly less than the goals set by the General Assembly in the original Thornton "Education Bridge to Excellence" legislation.

Governor O'Malley promised during his 2006 campaign to fully fund the Thornton education program.  Despite this campaign promise, Governor O'Malley actually introduced legislation that slashed the education formulas during the 2007 Special Legislative Session.

Consequently, as a result of Governor O'Malley's legislation, Howard County will receive $52 million less in education funding over the next four years.  This is a significant loss of dollars that would have gone directly to the classroom to support student learning and to improve the professional salary structure to enhance the recruitment and retention of highly-qualified classroom teachers.

In addition to not providing the full story on education funding, Governor O'Malley also conveniently fails to mention the burden that he has placed on working families during the same time frame. 

As Governor, he engineered the largest tax increase in Maryland history.  He raised the sales tax 20%, the car titling tax 20%, the corporate tax 18% and the personal income tax (twice).

At a time when Marylanders are paying more for groceries, electricity, gas and other essential items, it is foolish to think that the public's attention will be diverted from the adverse daily impact of Governor O'Malley's policies solely because of a small bump in school construction funding.