The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page C1

baltimoresun.comperspective THE JBfk SUN Section PERSPECTIVE Sunday, June 26, 2005 Danger seen in China's economic power By Larry Williams PERSPECTIVE EDITOR for growing concerns in this country about China's mounting strength. Many business and political leaders believe China is fueling its growth by unfairly manipulating the value of its currency, the yuan. By holding the value of the yuan down, the Chinese make their goods cheaper here and U.S. goods more expensive there. Last year, the United States imported almost $200 billion in goods from China, up from only $3.8 billion in 1994.

and that America's industrial might was supreme. Now, some are beginning to wonder whether another such realization might be over the horizon formed by another ocean the Pacific. So far, America's social and economic power remains unchallenged. But China's economy is growing at an astounding pace. And an $18.5 billion bid last week by CNOOC a Chinese oil company, to purchase American-based Unocal Corp.

is becoming a focal point Not only are we buying Chinese goods, we are also sending the Chinese jobs. A significant share of the goods we buy every year, both high-tech television sets, computers, cell phones and the like and low-tech clothing comes from China. Because consumers in the United States purchase far more goods from China than we sell there, China has accumulated more than $230 billion from our steadily increasing trade deficit. Until recently, the Chinese invested much of that money in U.S. government bonds.

But recently the Chinese have started using their dollars to bid for American businesses. Last year, IBM's personal computer business was purchased by Lenavo Group, a Chinese computer maker. This month, Haier Group, a Chinese home appliance maker, offered $2.25 billion for landmark American manufacturer Maytag. It is logical for China to begin buying companies, if for no other reason than to diversify after purchasing so many U.S. government bonds.

And owning companies is more profitable, economists note. But the Chinese pursuit of an oil company rang a particular bell for Americans increasingly concerned with soaring oil prices that flirted last week with reaching a record $60 a barrel. The stock market fell sharply at the end of the week as investors worried about the potential economic harm from higher energy costs in regard to transportation and manufacturing. The grow- See China, 6c At the end of the 19th century, Great Britain, then the world's dominant political and economic power, made money investing in the fast-growing economy of upstart America on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. A few decades later, the British came gradually to recognize, painfully, that the upstart had become the leader that Wall Street had supplanted London as the world's financial capital Though the year had its rough patches and there's still work to be done regarding curriculum and test scores, Baltimore schools chief Bonnie S.

Copeland is seeing signs of a brighter future ahead. Ahead of charters' learning curve 'New Schools': The city system's initiative encourages more choice and innovative approaches in the educational mix. By Michael Hill SUN STAFF KENNETH K. LAM SUN STAFF Baltimore schools chief Bonnie S. Copeland, speaking about the future with David Stone, the system's director of charter schools, says that they are only a part of the city's move toward greater choice.

An expansion of "innovation" high schools and more K-8 schools are others. Fresh hope for schools As the state of Maryland belatedly moves into the charter school business many will open across the state in the fall the city of Baltimore has a head start. For eight years now, Baltimore has been the home of the so-called New Schools Initiative, which has produced 10 institutions that are charter schools in everything but name. Most came from community-based efforts. All try different approaches to teaching and learning, taking a course independent of that mandated by the central administration on North Avenue.

Frederick County is the only other jurisdiction that authorized similar schools. Although it will require a bit of bureaucratic hoop-jumping to turn the city's New Schools into state-approved charter schools ensuring that they meet the requirements of the state legislation passed in 2003 city education officials say they welcome the state measure. That's partly because the charter des- See Charter, 2c Charter schools Charter schools are an American idea that allows publicly funded schools to act and operate like private schools. The theory is that competition from charter schools will encourage other public schools to perform better. Charter schools are commonly founded as magnet schools, or as schools for at-risk kids or those with special educational needs.

Opinions on the schools vary as to their success, in part because such institutions can differ greatly in quality, competence and effectiveness. By Laura Loh SUN STAFF district in Maryland. The performance of middle-school pupils continues to lag dangerously. On the latest state tests, only about 39 percent of seventh- and eighth graders were proficient in reading a 3 percent drop from last year. As more than a third of the city's 180 schools languish on a state watch list because of years of low test scores, middle-class parents continue to flee the city when their children reach school age or choose private schools, leaving many schools underutilized.

But, as she ends her second full year as Baltimore's school chief, Copeland points to indicators of a brighter future. The system is more financially stable than it was a year ago, when it had just embarked on a plan to recover from a $58 million budget deficit accumulated under Copeland's predecessor, Carmen V. Russo. Through tight controls on spending and careful budgeting, the system has reduced its deficit by 60 percent and expects to end the fiscal year with a slight surplus. It will be able to buy new textbooks next school year and give teachers pay raises for the first time in three years, she said.

"I think there's a lot of hope," said Copeland, 55, who expects to sign a contract to remain the system's top official through 2008. Although this school year was not nearly as chaotic as her first during which the monumental task of reining in runaway spending consumed her it was still a bumpy ride. Cuts to the number of school police officers and hall monitors left hallways in many middle and high schools inadequately supervised. As some students took the empty hallways as an opportune spots to set See Copeland, 2c Baltimore schools chief Bonnie S. Copeland says a gnawing fear recently kept her awake at night that Baltimore's children would not make academic gains in the just-completed school year.

She had good reason to be concerned. A budget crisis had placed a severe strain on the city's schools. Classes were crowded and teachers overworked. Early in the year, hallways served as playgrounds for misbehaving students because paying hall monitors was deemed too great an expense. Buildings were dirty because there weren't enough custodians.

But when the results of the Maryland School Assessments state tests taken in March by children in grades 3-8 were released this month, they showed many city pupils had done well in spite of a whirlwind of distractions, improving in math and reading over last year. More than 60 percent of Baltimore's third-graders passed reading and 56 percent passed math an increase of 6 percent and 2 percent, respectively, over last year. Fifth-grade scores also went up, with 58 percent of pupils passing reading and 48 percent passing math. "I was very surprised pleasantly surprised because I didn't think we would see any growth," Copeland said in an interview last week. "Against all odds, the children prevailed." Despite that good news, Baltimore's school system remains the lowest-achieving Deciphering O'Malley's rhetori Speech: Words often fall trippingly from the mayor's tongue to his political benefit, but sometimes simply trip him up.

of the oratorical strengths and weaknesses Marylanders are likely to encounter as Baltimore's mayor gears up for his all-but-certain run for the governorship next year. Grandiloquent rhetoric can inspire, say the experts, but it can also leave speakers vulnerable to misstatement, overstatement and unexpected forays into purpleness. O'Malley has "extraordinary confidence in his ability to communicate on a higher public stage," says Keith Haller, president of Potomac a non partisan Bethesda polling firm. "You certainly put a big star next to his name for oratorical skills. But he has run into trouble on occasion when he has pushed the envelope and some people saw it as going a bit far." Backers and critics agree that O'Malley's oratory is potentially among his most valuable assets.

"The mayor's gaze, his presence, his charisma, can all leave an audience rapt," says Arthur W. Murphy, a pro-O'Malley political consultant at the Democracy Group in Annapolis. "He's always pas- See O'Malley, 6c full of dramatic imagery, high ideals, more than a little hyperbole and occasionally tortured syntax. Calling Maryland "a potential powerhouse of a state," he added that its future "is threatened by the icy, minimalist indifference of those who say to a free, a diverse, and to a courageous people, 'This far can you go, and no If the words had the lilt of a J.F.K., the imagery of a William Butler Yeats and the grammatical reversibility of a Yoda, they also gave his audience an earful By Jonathan Pitts SUN STAFF At a $2 million fund-raiser at Bank Stadium on Monday night, Mayor Martin O'Malley gave the kind of speech many observers have come to expect KARL MERTON FERRON SUN STAFF At his fund-raiser, Mayor Martin O'Malley waxed poetic, saying Maryland's future "is threatened by the icy, minimalist indifference of those who say 'This far can you go, and no.