Education Questionnaire

FINISHED!

CINDY WALSH FOR MAYOR OF BALTIMORE

EDUCATION QUESTIONNAIRE
2016 Candidate Questionnaire—BALTIMORE CITY RACES
AFT-Maryland

Candidate for Mayor of Baltimore
Candidate’s name    Cindy Walsh

Address      2522 N Calvert St, Baltimore, MD    21218
Email    cwals99@yahoo.com
Occupation     Academic research for several universities across the nation
May we make your answers to our questionnaire public? Please do
Party affiliation (circle one):
Democrat X                        Republican                          Independent        Other (please specify)_____________
Have you received an endorsement from a labor union? If so, which ones?         No
Have you ever held elected office? When? No

General

The AFT-Maryland is a federation of numerous employee unions, including Baltimore City teachers and paraprofessional and school-related personnel (BTU); Baltimore City employees (CUB); as well county and state employees; public health professionals; and higher education workers. Why should we support your campaign?

I am the strongest and only candidate for Mayor of Baltimore that not only will protect all public employee jobs, benefits, and the strength of public unions, my platform is about growing the number of Baltimore public employees through building Baltimore City Hall agencies out into all of the communities; rebuilding vital public institutions in all communities---from public schools, rec centers, health clinics all with the goal of creating the platform from which all other services are rendered----ie. Outsourcing to non-profits and/or small businesses. This public structure is what has been missing in Baltimore for decades and is why we have such disconnect in all of the services, all of the programs, all of the various non-profits all working to improve social conditions including our public schools. It is why we lose so much of the funding sent to these public services as no oversight and accountability can be created without local administration following citizens and programs for the long-term. I will fight to keep all public infrastructure in the hands of Baltimore citizens, make sure the rates and quality are public interest, and hold the Maryland Public Services and Maryland Public Works commission for rulings favoring the public interest and not the standard rulings for corporate profits. Public transportation is now under attack as is our public education and health care. Baltimore has the most privatizing and corporate policies for all public sector agencies and I will reverse this.

2. Have you ever been a member of a union? If yes, please give the union name, local number, and date.

I have been a member of UPS Teamsters in Richmond, VA from 1977-92.

Worker RightS

3. Should Baltimore City librarians be granted the right to engage in collective bargaining? Should employees of the Baltimore Convention Center? If you are elected to office, will you work to expand collective bargaining rights to public employees who currently do not have that right?

Absolutely. All academic positions, from public universities to librarians need to be unionized and are across the nation. I will work to do this. As important, the unions that have existed have been marginalized in Baltimore by policies aimed at keeping wages the lowest possible. I will make all unions feel they have real support and push legislation and Baltimore contract bids that sees hiring union as a benefit. Enforcing labor laws will bring these changes; broadening public perception about the values of union negotiations; making sure union wins are installed and enforced---this will change the current labor environment in Baltimore.

4. Many cities nationwide have passed ordinances that raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Would you be in favor of Baltimore raising its minimum wage to $15 per hour? Why or why not?

I support Living Wages and see this $15 an hour as a calculation done in 2010 so the actually Living Wage is higher. As this issue moves down the road we want to advocate for wages as close to real cost of living as possible. As we work to rebuild our local, domestic economy of small businesses we must look at the effects of this wage on Mom and Pop operations as we all know all businesses will not be able to afford these wages. Calculating number of employees and profit will let us know when businesses have reached a threshold for being good corporate citizens paying Living Wage and fair taxation rates.

5. Retirement for city workers: defined benefit versus defined contribution. The city of Baltimore has been discussing moving from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan (401K) for its employees’ retirement. Do you support such a plan? Why or why not?

Defined Benefit because I would never place anything to do with retirement into today’s stock market no matter the investment structure. That has proven to be the wrong investment model and simply creating a Baltimore Public Banking system for example where all Baltimore City revenue can be placed along with these retirement savings will allow for adequate interest accumulation and knowledge that these funds will be there. Seeing these retirement accounts actually funded each year is a must. Employees wanting that choice of 401Ks should be heard----it does not have to be either/or.

The Role of Public Education in Baltimore City

6. What do you think are some of the biggest problems facing Baltimore City public schools today? If elected, how would you help solve these problems?

Baltimore City Public Schools have been a source of neglect for decades. From never receiving Federal funding that would have allowed school infrastructure and resources be maintained; to education funding that did make it the city never making it to classrooms because of fraud and corruption; this last few decades of actual dismantling and closing of Baltimore City Public Schools was to be the nail in what Baltimore’s power structure intended to be privatized and corporatized K-college. Cindy Walsh as Mayor of Baltimore will reverse all of this effort at ending public education by reversing all of these policies. I will make sure Federal funding for education makes it to our underserved public schools; I will make sure there is a public school in all communities; I will make sure Baltimore has a tax resource designated to funding our public schools; and I will keep corporations out of schools making sure parents, students, and teachers are the voice in what their community public school looks like. Corporate partnerships with high school vocational tracking has always been in place. I will make sure high schools are resourced to have strong shop and technology shops where students can be introduced to vocation and then decide what track to pursue with corporate internships etc.

Baltimore City Public School Board has been held hostage long enough to a state partnership that has made the school system far worse----not better and this will bring control of Baltimore’s schools back to Baltimore City Hall. I will clear the corporate school board we have now and make sure future Baltimore City School Superintendents are educators keen on strong public schools. There will be no ‘schools as businesses’ under my tenure as I rebuild the public administrative structures needed for equal opportunity and access education with a broad humanities/liberal arts based curricula without all of the Common Core/Pearson’s evaluation process for students and teachers. We know how to do rigor----we know how to grade our children and we will provide the oversight and accountability to make sure each teacher is performing as they should and students are achieving and not simply getting a grade.

7. Community Schools: Beginning in August 2015, Baltimore City will have 51 of its public schools serving as designated community schools. A community school is a public school that partners with some entity (UM-Baltimore or the Baltimore YMCA, just to name a few examples) to provide either after-school academic or social services to both students and members of the community. Would you be in favor of expanding the Community School Strategy in Baltimore by working to make more Baltimore City public schools community schools? If so, why? If not, why not?

I think the concept of ‘community schools’ is fine. I do not want our public schools gutted of staff reporting daily and knowing our students replaced by these partnerships which is often what is happening. I will see that all schools are funded for all staff needed, not only per-pupil ratios meaning that schools will have guidance and social workers, special needs teachers, librarians, music and art teachers……as well as any non-profit or small business that wants to partner. The term Wrap-Around-Services comes from education privatizers wanting to be rid of this public school staffing structure so if you are supporting the breakdown of the public structure of our schools, you may not like my platform. Remember, once they break down and replace all these positions with private partnerships----then the funding will disappear and there will be no wrap-around. Let’s keep our public school staffing AND augment with any kind of community partnerships parents and administrators want to make.

8. Public Charter Schools: There are just over 40 public charter schools in the state of Maryland, and the vast majority of them reside in Baltimore City. The large, out-of-state charter operators would like to weaken state law to make teachers and staff employees of the charter board, rather than employees of Baltimore City Public Schools. This would remove all protections that teachers and staff have under the collective bargaining agreement between the teachers union and the school board. This would also limit oversight of these privately run public schools by taking them out from under the purview of BCPS, as well as giving these charters a “blank check waiver” from any local school board policy. Should charter school teachers and staff be considered employees of the charter school or of the local school board? Should oversight of these schools be weakened?
First, I will stop and reverse the charter structure that has taken almost all of the public schools not being closed. Even advocates for charters know that most of these charters are simply moving to becoming corporate charters tied to corporate campuses and not the warm and fuzzy community charters most people want. I will remove the status of charter to all schools not created by a neighborhood wanting that charter and I will look at how charter agreements are written to make sure they really meet the terms of ‘public’ schools following Federal guidelines and looking from where funding sources lie to determine the status as ‘public’ charter vs private charter. I am 100% with teacher’s unions and will support any inclusion of unions into charter expansions. Teacher’s unions do need to make concessions as contracts have become too heavy in some cases but we want all schools deemed public to include our unions. There will be no ‘blank check waivers’ by charters wanting to be deemed public.

9. Charter School funding. There has been a long-running dispute between certain charter school operators and Baltimore Public Schools over appropriate funding. As a feature of being a public charter school in Baltimore, the charters are largely given cash—calculated on a per-pupil basis—from the district, in lieu of the services that the central administration provides neighborhood schools. Most recently, the system presented a per pupil funding formula that mandated funds intended for students living in poverty or who are English language learners actually receive those funds. Some charter operators have countered with a lawsuit, arguing that those special funds for high-poverty students or ESOL be distributed to every student equally, regardless of need. How do you think BCPS should calculate its charter school per pupil funding model?

I am not a fan of per-pupil funding as I think all schools should receive the resources needed for all students in the community. Given Baltimore’s high poverty rates we already have Federal funding that should be coming to public schools to augment in areas needed. Well-funded schools all around give administration the tools it needs not only to create the basics in the classroom but to grow the curricula and school programs in school to enrich students needing special learning environments. That said, I understand we have a per-pupil funding structure and I will make sure the equal opportunity and access laws regarding poverty, disability, and special needs is enforced as being able to be categorized as a ‘public charter’. Charters are supposed to be innovative but that does not mean they must leave what has been a very strong education policy for equal opportunity and access to innovate. I will not as well tolerate all of this corporate and private funding charters are being allowed giving large disparity from one public school to these ‘public charters’.

10. School vouchers: should government give out vouchers (either a tax credit, or even a tax rebate) to parents who want to send their children to a private school? Please explain your answer.

No to vouchers.Public funding for schools is tied to equal opportunity and access and to resources for all citizens in a community and private schools are often geared to be specialized in ways that do not meet those criteria.Vouchers are often used to move students from one area to another in an effort to access good public education when every community should offer that public school to parents.

11. Education funding: This past year, lawmakers in Annapolis severely cut education to Baltimore City schools. Some in Annapolis have argued that the city should be contributing more to public schools, as property values (especially in and around the Inner Harbor area) have rapidly increased. Do you agree with this assessment?
I do feel that Baltimore has the ability to contribute more to funding its schools and simply building oversight and accountability throughout all public city agencies; reviewing all corporate subsidy, TIF, Enterprise Zone , and bond contracts will find the $3 billion Baltimore City budget DOUBLED. We simply need to gain control of fraud and corruption making sure the Federal funds get to our schools and we won’t be so connected to what the Maryland Assembly decides from year to year. I will move much of the funding found from oversight and accountability to our communities and to community public schools. Our property taxes are the highest around and yet we do not source them towards our public schools. We can not only reduce property taxes but keep some sourced to our public schools. That said, Baltimore must maintain Maryland State funding levels all counties across Maryland receive. This addresses the movement to funding public schools higher for high achieving schools vs low-achieving schools where I see funding issues moving from the Maryland Assembly. I would fight this.

12. Some current members of the Baltimore City Council have proposed a city charter amendment that would guarantee 3% of the city’s budget for youth programs in the city, like recreation programs, youth mentorship, and afterschool programs. Would you be in favor of such a charter amendment? Why or why not?

I would look at this but my initial reaction is we do not need it if we are rebuilding local economies, hiring locally Baltimore citizens to jobs created in Baltimore etc. Baltimore has the worst job and workplace conditions in the nation because powers have kept Baltimore’s hiring and wage policies to the advantage of corporations. Simply reversing all of the Baltimore Board of Estimates bidding and contracting award policies will address our youth having jobs in high school and after graduation. I will amend the City Charter to rebuild the Board of Estimates and all of the contract awarding guidelines having a city council person from all districts involved in how city revenue moves and making sure it moves to all communities----this will create a steady stream of jobs. So, you see we don’t need this 3% figure because it is token and the policies are driven to move youth into internships, VISTA, apprenticeship, and all kinds of free and reduced labor AND THAT WILL END with Cindy Walsh as Mayor of Baltimore.

13. Due to the limited number of certified nurses in Baltimore City Public Schools, administrators and/or staff are forced to administer medication to students, share nurses between multiple school locations, and utilize part-time nurses. How would you help solve this issue?

My platform rebuilds the public school structure that made our schools community schools throughout modern history. Our schools have been staffed with guidance and social workers-----nurses and librarians------music and art teachers as part of each public school's staff. It is true music and art teachers are sometimes shared between schools---but they are teaching staff of these schools. It was always critical to have a registered nurse as staff for the very reasons in the question above. Children are known to carry the most contagion----from colds and flu to communicable disease like whooping cough and polio simply because their immune systems are not strong. This is why having qualified nursing staff is critical to not only students and their families----but to the staff we want able to report to classrooms each day. We are watching as Affordable Care Act seeks to create tiered degree and certification of our health professionals-----I support maintaining rigor in degree standards while looking at ways to broaden staffing in communities having a shortage of professionals.

14. Currently, all seats on the Baltimore City School Board are appointed. Legislation is introduced almost every year to allow for at least a partially elected school board. Would you be in favor of such legislation?

I not only favor a hybrid Baltimore School Board----I support that a majority membership by held by citizen vote and not appointment. Currently, Baltimore Maryland Assembly pols have introduced a hybrid school board proposal that would keep majority control of school board to State or Baltimore City Hall control---meaning citizen's voice will still be trumped by a currently corporate controlled government. If pols think citizens are not informed enough to vote for the best person for a school board, then that pol is not in his/her district educating citizens on education policy and educating as to who are the strongest leaders in education. We must return the voice of citizens to our public schools and that begins with elected school boards.

As important in Baltimore is the fact that the State of Maryland has control of our Baltimore City School Board. Since the terms of State control necessitated improvement of what was a system rife with poor standards for city students, from special education students to underserved students not receiving their US Constitution rights to equal opportunity and access----and since almost two decades after Baltimore City schools are far worse for these same students -----a Baltimore Mayor and City Council can simply go to Federal court and bring control back to Baltimore City Hall. The Maryland Assembly has no standing in this status. We must bring control back to Baltimore in order to rebuild a strong public school system for all citizens of Baltimore. Make no mistake, the powers in Baltimore today are trying to corporatize our K-12 making them simply part of corporate campuses----ending public education.

15. Violence in the city schools. What do you think is the best strategy to assure that our school buildings are safe and welcoming environments for children, teachers, and other education professionals in Baltimore City?

Any Mayor of Baltimore and city council pol that has not addressed issues of violence in Baltimore needs to go-----we have watched these several years as the very policies that create extreme poverty and unemployment have grow all while pols pretend to be fighting to end violence. This city has the revenue to really address much of these poverty and unemployment issues and this must be done to address the movement of violence on the street moving into our schools. Armed police or student searches are not the answer. Children are already being exposed to too much of these repressive approaches. We do need to protect our staff and students until all this reform in communities occurs. Metal detectors and hiring school security staff-----not police officers with guns-----who patrol hallways and monitor doors is a must. Encouraging the 'IF YOU SEE WEAPONS REPORT THIS' procedure is a must. We have a strong NO SNITCHING mentality in Baltimore that students feel obligated towards that must be engaged in ways that do not endanger our students. We must allow an environment in our schools that create a temporary reprieve from all of the fear and violence many students experience when they leave. Anti-bullying, multiculturalism, anger management all need to be part of each public school's education agenda.

Vision for Baltimore City

16. The city has begun shutting the water off for accounts that are delinquent by more than $250. It has started to turn off the water for both individual accounts and business accounts. Do you agree with this plan? Why or why not?

The City of Baltimore has for decades been controlled by politicians working for Baltimore Development and not for the citizens in their districts. This has led to policies that give corporate subsidy and denies public subsidy including from Federal social programs and agencies. This is why poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and unemployment is so chronic in Baltimore. If you can subsidize a corporation downtown with a billion dollar profit margin why not subsidize homeowners feeling the strains of bad economic policy brought by Baltimore City Hall via Baltimore Development? This extends to our lead paint public health crisis. Many of our city homeowners are struggling to keep their homes and properties. Many landlords are not slum landlords but are unable to meet city codes or in this question's case-----are having trouble with taxes and water bills. We do not have to coddle citizens with handouts, but giving people a pathway to meeting these obligations is to everyone's benefit. I would change laws taking people's homes for small debts. Data shows that much of the delinquent water debt is tied to corporations and not homeowners and yet, these law are hitting our homeowners first. Baltimore must move from corporate subsidy to fill our government coffers with funds that can then be distributed equally to all our communities and build homeownership by helping those those already owning homes.

17. Privatization. Many rumors have been circulating that the city has been looking into privatizing water services. When, if ever, do you feel it is appropriate to privatize public services or to sell off or privatize city-owned resources?

My entire campaign platform is about rebuilding and protecting our city infrastructure, public works and public services from what has been a few decades of total privatization. Every public agency has been literally attacked with privatization. Now, Republicans and some Democrats supported the idea of outsourcing to create small businesses but flash forward to today----and no one supports the degree to which privatization has occurred. This is what made Baltimore filled with corporate fraud and government corruption and losses of city revenue is a billion or more each year. Flash forward to today and we are seeing this privatization moving to global corporations which was the goal and now privatization threatens our sovereignty and national, state, and city security. The US Constitution and Maryland Constitution protects sovereignty so can reverse these privatization deals that were NOT in the public interest. National security laws will not allow vital infrastructure into the hands of global corporations especially ignoring Rule of Law. It will be easy to reverse this privatization and I am the only candidate for Mayor of Baltimore that will really do this.

18. There are at least two competing strategies to help the city raise funds for recreation centers: one calls on the city to sell off a number of public parking garages downtown; another calls for the Downtown Hilton to be sold. Do you prefer one plan over the other? Or a different plan to raise revenues for more rec centers? Do you think raising more funds for recreation centers should be a priority for city leaders? Why or why not?

First, the city has always had the revenue to fund all public rec centers. The goal of Baltimore Development was to close all public institutions as a development tool and rebuilding what was a public institution with a corporate non-profit. This is why Baltimore City community centers, public health clinics, and recreation centers are closing. You will notice the same Baltimore City pols voting to close and failing to fund them are now calling for CORPORATE NON-PROFIT recreation centers. We already see this move when YMCA/YWCA started to receive government funding ----these national organizations are now simply corporations and are putting many small business athletic centers out of business as well as replacing our public ones. Public funds should go to public rec centers. We want to stop this replacement of public with non-profit because the goal is for non-profits to stop funding and end these public institutional sources open to all. Once your community centers depend on 'donations'----it can disappear altogether. Best to work financial support into our city budget. Democrats know the importance of public meeting spaces. It is what gives citizens their own spaces for meeting-----it is the only space required to be open to all ------it gives communities control of how these spaces operate. Everyone sees the effect of corporate non-profits coming in with their own agenda set. Republicans often think this is public welfare----but it is how citizens in a free society have their voices -----

19. The City is entertaining proposals to build a trash incinerator near Curtis Bay, located less than one mile away from Benjamin Franklin High School and Curtis Bay Elementary school. Supporters claim this incinerator will create much-needed jobs for the community. Opponents argue that incinerators pollute even more than coal-burning power plants, and should not be constructed so close to public schools. What is your position on the construction of a trash incinerator in Curtis Bay?

Curtis Bay has many public policy problems. First, it has been made an export terminal for natural gas. For those not knowing what happens in the process of fracking natural gas----transporting natural gas----and then shipping it in global cargo ships----the process at each stage involves chemical treatment of these gases and with chemical treatment comes hazardous waste----ergo, this waste incinerator in Curtis Bay. Make no mistake, the intent of corporate pols and Baltimore Development is to have natural gas export terminals in our Port of Baltimore and with that more waste incinerators. Think again about growing our medical campuses into global health tourism and you have medical waste incinerators. So, the problem will not go away by simply fighting this placement near schools. The problem is allowing the exporting of natural gas which in turn creates increased fracking; all environmentally devastating. This is what global market economics does to our nation. Developed nations do not export natural resources they conserve them and use them over time to the benefit of US citizens. We should not be exporting natural gas----we do not need global health tourism both of which creates the need for more and more waste incinerators. If we allow these other policies to continue----if not the schools in Curtis Bay, then somewhere close. If we do not stop these installations of waster incinerators then the air across the Baltimore region will be saturated and everyone will feel the consequence. STOP GLOBAL MARKET EXPORTING OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

20. According to some statistics, there are approximately 16,000 vacant buildings and 14,000 vacant lots in Baltimore. Combined they total 30,000 vacant properties within the city limits, and play a large role in contributing to crime and other problems facing the city. More than 75% of all vacant property in Baltimore city is privately owned. How can we fix this problem and make sure land is being used effectively and efficiently in Baltimore?

1. 30,000 vacant homes-----

My housing agenda starts with ending outsourcing of community building and bringing small business and construction to the citizens in each community. I envision identifying houses in communities needing demolition vs those to rehab building a debris recycling system in each community so citizens can not only bring houses down but save recycled construction debris to be used in rehab. Right now all those community resources are being given to outsourced development contractors and they profit from recycling.

The second vision for this rebuilding comes in creating a huge public green space by removing not only demolished houses but all of the concrete associated with these large blighted neighborhoods. Each community can easily have several acres of public green space in a central location that will serve as a community food source with public institutions like school, recreation, health clinics. My goal of having the poor as homeowners with a source for food giving housing and food security will see as many people engaged in this rebuilding as homeowners. A grand public greenhouse with small animal husbandry creates a food economy from growing, harvesting, butchery, and small food stores all operated by citizens in each community. So, this creates the platform for the poorest in small business ownership, home-ownership, and food access freedom.

Once the poorest are stable, a community has an easier time recruiting working/middle-class citizens to grow around this public green space. New home construction can be funded with everything from Enterprise Zone/subprime mortgage settlement funds/HUD grants for mixed-income communities, and a redirect of Baltimore City subsidy of downtown development to these surrounding communities. I would not want huge investment firms that buy entire blocks of communities for development control----instead I would look for smaller developers who value being awarded the opportunity to work with citizens in creating mixed-income multi-plex rentals. Believe it or not, there are plenty of regional players wanting this opportunity.

So, the 30,000 vacant homes will be either repurposed as rehabs, demolished as unsalvageable, or redirected to being part of a public green space and institution campus.

What about the middle-class housing?

I attended the last Baltimore Housing meeting to ask what is meant by 'affordable housing' in an area like Barclay and Harwood communities bordering Johns Hopkins Homewood for example. I live in Charles Village and see the rents rising in Mt Vernon and Charles Village from $450-800 in the days of affordable rentals----to today with rents rising to $1200 -1700. You can easily see the plan for this corridor being very affluent. Other cities gentrifying are having this city central with rents of $2,000-3,000 in a decade with prices higher soon after that. So, what is affordable when rents are this high? Of course, not the middle-class. The middle-class are being forced to commute to these large cities an hour and more from suburbs they can afford. As Mayor of Baltimore I would be glad to promote co-op and land trust zoning in these central communities----rent control is a must when rents are predicted so high.

I stated above that a stabilized underserved community makes integration of middle-class easier and that will be a large part of new housing around these green spaces. What I call surrounding communities many call SE and SW Baltimore and NE and NW Baltimore. The opportunities for co-ops and land trusts are huge with surrounding public green spaces creating a good quality of life with commutes to downtown for work easily accessible. Looking at previous development of communities wanting gentrification the plan installed citizens into vacant to values in a very piecemeal way leaving these communities struggling with the poverty and crime for decades. That will not be the case with the development plan above as demolition and creation of green space is labor intense but cost manageable. Previous development envisioned population density over public green space and I am the opposite.