Ehrlich and Baltimore City Public Schools: Passion or just Politics

There is an interesting article in the Sun today. Apparently, Bobby Haircut really cares about Baltimore City schools. I know, I was surprised too. I thought Bobby's thing was slots and destroying the chesapeke bay. Wrong, you see, his pet issue has always been the performance of City schools (which leads me to think Mr. Ehrlich ran for the wrong office).

In fact, Ehrlich cares so much that he has completely ingnored the concerns of local jusrisdictions, even in his home county:

But Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. agreed with O'Malley's assessment that Ehrlich has not been a partner in helping local jurisdictions on many issues.

"I have no input with the governor with respect to school board appointments," Smith said. "He doesn't work with Baltimore County, and I'm the country executive of his home county."

Wonderful.

The real thing to note here is that Ehrlich has no room to talk about school quality. After reading this WAPO article its clear that County schools are suffering just as much as city schools:

Yesterday, the Maryland State Department of Education reported that 241 elementary and middle schools fell short of academic targets in 2005-06, based on standardized test scores for grades 3 through 8 and student attendance data. That represented an increase of more than 20 percent over the previous annual total of 196.

and compare that record to the record of city schools:

Data released yesterday show that more than 80 Baltimore schools failed to meet performance targets and more than 60 are rated in need of improvement, and most have been on the list for several years.

Ok then, so why do Mr. Ehrlich and Mrs. Grasmick feel that they have the right to take over city schools when they are having the very same problems of which they accuse Mr. O'Malley? Maybe Bobby realized he has nothing else to run on but the percieved negatives of Mr. O'Malley. Too bad for him, any informed voter with the power to do a google search will see right through Ehrlich's attempt to pin faltering public schools on they Mayor.

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