State to continue BOOST program in county
80 students received tuition subsidies this school year
Monsignor Slade Catholic School, a Glen Burnie School with about 600 students, enrolled seven students this school year with help from a state program that subsidized tuition for low-income students.
In the program’s first year, the seven students are among 80 in Anne Arundel County benefiting from the program known as BOOST —far fewer than in other counties, where hundreds of students received grants.
State and local officials attributed the disparity largely to more low-income families being concentrated in other counties and in Baltimore City. Only 98 students in Anne Arundel applied for money from the $5 million program in 2016, compared to 890 who applied in Baltimore City.
Critics of the program said the data shows the program mostly helped students already enrolled in private school pay tuition instead of helping families in public schools attend private schools. Supporters of the program argue as the program becomes established, more public-school families will apply. Some principals and state officials said private schools didn’t have enough time to recruit students because the program was approved in the spring and the scholarships were even later in the year.
Out of those 80 grant recipients in Anne Arundel County, 80 percent were already enrolled in a private school when they received the grant. The breakdown on the state level is similar, with the majority of grant recipients already enrolled in private schools. The BOOST advisory board gave out larger grants to students enrolled in public school than in private school to encourage them to participate in the program, said the board’s chair, Matt Gallagher. The awards ranged from $1,000, for students eligible for a reduced meal in private schools, to $4,400, for students eligible for free lunches in public schools.
Sen. Ed DeGrange, D-Millersville, a longtime proponent of school vouchers, said he expects applications from publicschool families to rise.
“It’s a new program, a new concept. It does take time to get up and running,” he said.
Those 80 students will likely continue to receive aid as part of a state effort to give families the financial options to chose private schools. The General Assembly passed the fiscal 2018 state budget Tuesday with $5.5 million to continue the Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today program to help low-income students attend private schools. The allocation is $500,000 more than this fiscal year.
Richard Benfer, the president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County, said the program didn’t help the children it was intended to help, and argued the money could be better used in public schools “to lower class sizes, fund contracts, a myriad of things,” he said.
Students who made the jump from public to private school with help from the program depend on its continuation, said Alexa Cox, principal of the Monsignor Slade Catholic School. Some students received $4,400, which covers more than
In the program’s first year, the seven students are among 80 in Anne Arundel County benefiting from the program known as BOOST —far fewer than in other counties, where hundreds of students received grants.
State and local officials attributed the disparity largely to more low-income families being concentrated in other counties and in Baltimore City. Only 98 students in Anne Arundel applied for money from the $5 million program in 2016, compared to 890 who applied in Baltimore City.
Critics of the program said the data shows the program mostly helped students already enrolled in private school pay tuition instead of helping families in public schools attend private schools. Supporters of the program argue as the program becomes established, more public-school families will apply. Some principals and state officials said private schools didn’t have enough time to recruit students because the program was approved in the spring and the scholarships were even later in the year.
Out of those 80 grant recipients in Anne Arundel County, 80 percent were already enrolled in a private school when they received the grant. The breakdown on the state level is similar, with the majority of grant recipients already enrolled in private schools. The BOOST advisory board gave out larger grants to students enrolled in public school than in private school to encourage them to participate in the program, said the board’s chair, Matt Gallagher. The awards ranged from $1,000, for students eligible for a reduced meal in private schools, to $4,400, for students eligible for free lunches in public schools.
Sen. Ed DeGrange, D-Millersville, a longtime proponent of school vouchers, said he expects applications from publicschool families to rise.
“It’s a new program, a new concept. It does take time to get up and running,” he said.
Those 80 students will likely continue to receive aid as part of a state effort to give families the financial options to chose private schools. The General Assembly passed the fiscal 2018 state budget Tuesday with $5.5 million to continue the Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today program to help low-income students attend private schools. The allocation is $500,000 more than this fiscal year.
Richard Benfer, the president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County, said the program didn’t help the children it was intended to help, and argued the money could be better used in public schools “to lower class sizes, fund contracts, a myriad of things,” he said.
Students who made the jump from public to private school with help from the program depend on its continuation, said Alexa Cox, principal of the Monsignor Slade Catholic School. Some students received $4,400, which covers more than
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
