Baltimore Catholic School Closings

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has decided to close 13 of its schools due to falling attendance and rising costs. Like most businesses in the area, they are suffering in this economy that just can't seem to be fixed with increased government spending. And when costs start exceeding revenue, you have to cut costs or increase prices, unless, of course, you are the government. Then you just print more money or borrow more from the Chinese and the Middle East. But the Archdiocese of Baltimore doesn't have the option to borrow money from Asian communists or Islamic dictators.

Most of these schools are suffering because the middle class of Baltimore City have been fleeing the city for years. I should know. My family was one of them. And now there just aren't enough children of middle class families to support the vast network of schools that the Archdiocese built to support the middle class who didn't want to send their children to the miserable and failing public schools of Baltimore City.

I probably wouldn't care too much about this whole issue except for one fact. I attended one of the schools that is being closed. In 1977 my parents enrolled me into St. Anthony's on Frankford Avenue, just south of Bel Air Road. I went there from 1st grade all the way through 8th grade. And like most children, my fondest memories of my childhood are at that school or with my friends from St. Anthony's.

My first memory of the school is when my mother dropped me off at the front steps and told me to go inside to room 105. I walk into the school and have no idea where room 105 is, so I stand there and cry.

When I first started attending the school, there were 3-4 classrooms for each grade with each class having about 30 students. That's huge by today's standards when parents demand no more than 15 students in a class. So assuming 90 students per grade, 8 grades, we probably had over 700 students when I first starting going to school there. And I think it's safe to say was probably more as most of the upper grades had 4 classes per grade. And they all had big flowing Barry Gibbs hair.

However, as I moved up in grade level, the newer classes were smaller. By the time I graduated 8th grade in 1986 most of the younger classes were 2 rooms each. I didn't keep in touch with the school after 8th grade as we moved from Rosedale to Bel Air where I attended Bel Air High School, which, coincidentally, was torn down this year to make way for a new high school. So now 2 of the 3 schools that I attended will be gone. The other school that I attended was McCormick Elementary School in Rosedale, where I went for Kindergarten. This is now a Baltimore County ghetto school.

In the late 90's the school attendance dropped dramatically and it eventually merged with some other schools and was renamed Mother Mary Lange Catholic School. St. Anthony must be all fired up - no offense Mother Mary Lange.

So while I understand that the Archdiocese must close schools in order to continue operating effectively, it saddens me to know that part of my childhood will no longer be there. But on the other hand, I probably wouldn't be caught dead in that area today anyway. So from Principal Duckett to Principal MacIntyre to Principal Moore, St. Anthony's is no more.

O'Malley's New Slave Law

Thanks to Blair Lee for bringing this to my attention. Starting in 2011 all companies that want to do business in the state of Maryland will be forced to comply with a new law that Martin O'Malley signed on April 14th.

The new law titled the Maryland Slaveholder Insurance Disclosure Law requires that insurance companies disclose any policies they or their predecessor companies issued to slave holders up through 1865. In addition, they will also need to disclose the names of the slaves.

I want to know what the purpose is of this law. According to the lead sponsor of the bill, Lisa Gladden, queen of tax payer waste, said the law will "...help Americans gain a deeper understanding of the evils of slavery and to find peace with the nation's checkered past" and "this is about becoming comfortable with our history. This is about healing."

Um...don't we have schools where we already teach about slavery? Isn't slavery already condemned in modern society? How will forcing insurance companies disclose this information help us heal and find peace with our checkered past? Lisa Gladden - you're nuts.

Here's what Delegate Lisa wants: (husband at breakfast table reading the Washington Post because the Baltimore Sun no longer exists) "Hey honey, check out this list of slaves that Met Life insured in Maryland back in 1745. Wow! I now have a deeper understanding of the evils of slavery. Boy, I sure feel a lot more comfortable about my past. Let's move on! Can you pass me another Eggo?"

I predict that in 2011 you will no longer be able to get insurance in the state of Maryland. How in the world are insurance companies going to comply with this law? Is there punishment for not being able to comply with the law? Gladden claims there will be no punishment for their disclosure, but does the law protect them from punishment or is that her word? What's to stop them for demanding reparations from these companies in the future for their disclosures?

I don't know about you, but I don't trust any word that a politician says. Take Kumar Barve, for example. He says favors tough drunk driving laws, yet his checkered drunk driving past says otherwise.

If this law stays, then I demand that Martin O'Malley sign a law apologizing for the persecution of Catholics in the state of Maryland in the 1600's through most of the 1700's. For those of you who don't know - Maryland passed a law in 1654 making it a crime to be a Catholic. In 1692, Maryland passed a law requiring Catholics to pay a tax to the Church of England. Additionally, Catholics were forbidden from holding services, creating schools, or participating in public office.

I understand that this isn't quite the same context as slavery, but my point is that putting ridiculous constraints on companies for a past in which the living had no part is unreasonable and unproductive. Stop wasting tax-payer money and increasing the cost of doing business in Maryland. We're going to get to the point where Maryland is the most politically correct state in the union that doesn't have any private sector jobs.