Re: Enter Spellings and Bush -- stage right ...

[aburke5054@aol.com]

It's heartening that Maryland politicians clearly have the best 
interests of children and parents at heart and are not simply firing 
potshots at each other in silly power games.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Allison <sueallison@comcast.net>
To: ARN Listserv <arn-l@interversity.org>
Sent: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 07:42:54 -0400
Subject: [arn-l] Enter Spellings and Bush -- stage right ...

Quote of the day honors go out to MD Senate President Mike Miller ...

 The threat would do nothing to prevent the General Assembly from 
overturning Ehrlich's veto, Miller said, adding: "We're going to 
override the veto. And I'm going to push that button extra hard."



 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.takeover06apr06,0,157765
1.story

Baltimore City School aid faces threat

Blocking takeover could imperil funds for state, U.S. says

By Liz Bowie and Jill Rosen
Sun reporters

April 6, 2006

 Raising the stakes in the dispute over education in Baltimore, the 
Bush administration is warning that $171 million in federal aid to 
Maryland could be in jeopardy if the General Assembly blocks a state 
attempt to take over 11 failing city schools.

 A letter outlining the threat was sent to state schools Superintendent 
Nancy S. Grasmick as Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is set to veto a bill 
that would place a one-year moratorium on the state takeover. The 
Assembly could override a veto.

 Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller called the letter an empty 
partisan threat and vowed that there would be no retreat.

 "This is all orchestrated by the right-wing Republican Party," he said 
yesterday. "They think we're too stupid to know that the phone lines go 
straight from Governor Ehrlich's office to Michael Steele's office to 
President Bush's office to the Republican Senate committees to the 
congressional campaign committees."

 The threat would do nothing to prevent the General Assembly from 
overturning Ehrlich's veto, Miller said, adding: "We're going to 
override the veto. And I'm going to push that button extra hard."

 The letter, dated yesterday, was written by Deputy Education Secretary 
Raymond Simon, who issued a statement last week in support of 
Grasmick's action.

 Much of the letter is a technical explanation of what actions a state 
may take against a local school district to adhere to the federal No 
Child Left Behind Act.

 After a school has failed to meet state standards for five years, the 
state can reopen the school as a public charter school, replace the 
staff, turn over the school to an independent entity or take it over, 
among other options.

 Simon also said in the letter that if the state is prevented by the 
district from carrying out its responsibility under the federal law, 
federal funds are in jeopardy.

Little threat seen

 Ralph S. Tyler, the Baltimore city solicitor, said he does not think 
the letter is much of a threat because the state could impose options 
other than a school takeover on the city to comply with the law.

And, he said, the moratorium would last only one year.

 "Contrary to the representation of the governor, it does not threaten 
the loss of federal funds and, significantly, the letter is not from 
the Department of Justice or the legal office of the Department of 
Education," Tyler said.

 Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. said Monday that the 
moratorium bill is sound and would not prevent the state from carrying 
out its responsibility under the federal law. He also concluded that 
federal funds are not in jeopardy.

 Paul T. Hill, a University of Washington professor and director of the 
Center on Reinventing Public Education, said Simon's threat might be 
serious.

Test case

 The state's move to take over the 11 schools is the first such action 
under the four-year-old federal law, and Maryland has become the test 
case for how the law should be enforced.

 Allowing the Maryland legislature to block the action, even for a 
year, could embolden other states not to take the law as seriously, 
Hill said.

Many other states are less enthusiastic about the law than Maryland is.

 The letter "is clearly meant to be a threat to strengthen Grasmick's 
hand and the governor's," Hill said. "What they are trying to signal is 
that they like what Grasmick did. They don't want the precedent of the 
state officer using that authority and having it slapped down."

 If federal officials allow the legislature's action to stand, he said, 
"then you have to decide what parts of [No Child Left Behind] are dead 
letters."

 Hill said federal education officials probably would withhold federal 
funds only as a last resort. Asked a week ago about the possibility of 
withholding funds from Maryland, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings 
said in an interview that "we are far from that."

 The money the department says could be in jeopardy is Title I aid that 
goes to schools with large numbers of poor children. It does not go to 
schools in wealthier areas.

'Political ploy'

 "It's a classic Democrat-Republican confrontation, with the 
schoolchildren of Baltimore City the pawns of a political ploy," Miller 
said.

 Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden, the Baltimore Democrat who is largely 
responsible for pushing the moratorium bill through the legislature 
last week, said yesterday that with an opinion from the state attorney 
general backing him up, he is not worried about losing federal money.

 "They think we're on sound legal footing and are putting it in 
writing," McFadden said, adding that the letter from Simon seemed to be 
more hypothetical than definite.

 "It says 'may' jeopardize funds. It does not say 'shall,'" he said. 
"And on the second page, it says very clearly 'potential jeopardy.' 
They're so angry, they're pulling the trigger based on a 'may' and a 
'potential.'"

 Before the letter was received, Ehrlich and state Comptroller William 
Donald Schaefer used yesterday's Board of Public Works meeting to 
defend Grasmick's decision to take control of the schools and to 
criticize the Baltimore officials who have opposed her.

 "What is being done to Nancy Grasmick is a crime, but what is being 
done to children in the name of politics is an even greater crime," 
Ehrlich said.

 "I don't know what we're celebrating other than complete 
dysfunctionality and the triumph of partisanship and silliness over 
kids."

 Schaefer said Grasmick is working "against the biggest obstructionists 
I've ever known. ... No person should be subjected to what she's 
subjected to by the students, the teachers, the parents and especially 
the legislature."

liz.bowie@baltsun.com jill.rosen@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun