Grasmick added that there are Democrats who support NCLB, which is a bipartisan piece of legislation. She mentioned Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy as one of NCLB's chief supporters. A note to the guv: If you've really got a bone in your nose about NCLB, Grasmick isn't your problem. It's Ted. You need to holla at him, son.
Or O'Malley could simply do what no other governor - or state legislature - in the country has had the gumption to do. For all of the whining, wailing, wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth about how horrible NCLB is, no state has told the federal government, "Keep the money you give us for education. We don't need it. We'll raise taxes to make up the difference and educate our children our way."
That should be O'Malley's message to the feds. Instead of being in a snit about Grasmick, he should get the backing of the Maryland legislature and tell the federal government to stick its education dollars where the sun don't shine. If you don't want to be accountable to the feds, don't take money from the feds.
Grasmick said she believes in accountability. That's why she supports NCLB. That's why she supports having students take the Maryland High School Assessments and, before that, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. The dreaded MSPAP - long the bane of many Maryland teachers, if the e-mails I've received from some are any indication - was, Grasmick insists, this state's way of ensuring that students were learning long before NCLB became the law of the land.
And it was that system of accountability, Grasmick adds, that resulted in Education Week ranking Maryland's public schools No. 3 in the country earlier this month. Massachusetts and New York came in ahead of Maryland, and Grasmick wasn't bashful about pointing out that those states also have superintendents who've been in place for quite a spell.
And, she added, all were appointed by school boards, not governors. Grasmick said Maryland's system has been in place since 1916 and was designed to keep politics out of education. That's why she's not resigning.
"I'm doing this," she said, "because there's a very critical protection of a principle: The education of our children should not be subjected to partisan politics."
greg.kane@baltsun.com
