[RP TownTalk] Prince George’s county executive moves to take over struggling school system

[Sarah Wayland]

This is *big* news.

*From: *Parents and PGCPS
*Date: *March 16, 2013 10:51:58 PM EDT
*Subject: **Prince George’s county executive moves to take over struggling
school system*

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-executive-moves-to-take-over-struggling-school-system/2013/03/16/9d38d624-8d81-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html

*Prince George’s county executive moves to take over struggling school
system*
By Ovetta Wiggins<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ovetta-wiggins/2011/03/08/ABKF0BP_page.html>
, Saturday, March 16, 8:57 PM
Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/baker-forms-panel-to-improve-school-system/2012/06/12/gJQAd9DRYV_story.html>is
planning a takeover of the county’s struggling school system, seeking state
legislation that would put him in charge of the school superintendent and
$1.7 billion budget while significantly reducing the power of the elected
Board of Education.
Should Baker (D) succeed, it would mark a dramatic shift in power and
result in a hybrid of the restructurings that have taken place in big
cities across the country, such as the District and New York, where
reform-minded executives have wrested control of embattled school systems.
The proposal comes after years of turmoil in Maryland’s second-largest
school system<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-school-enrollment-slides/2012/03/09/gIQASijwNS_story.html>,
which has seen rapid turnover of its superintendents and only modest
improvement in student performance as it languishes near the bottom of
statewide rankings.
Although Prince George’s is one of the wealthiest predominantly African
American counties in America — and neighboring Montgomery and Howard
counties have what are considered elite systems — its schools have
struggled with performance and politics.
Events in recent months have highlighted the problems facing county
schools. In September, William R. Hite
Jr.<http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-06-29/local/35459767_1_school-superintendent-william-r-hite-school-board>
—
the county’s fifth superintendent in 10 years — left to become
Philadelphia’s schools chief. Other top administrators soon departed. In
the meantime, one member of the Board of Education was found to be serving
on the board illegally; the board censured a new member for her outspoken
criticisms; and parents, other residents and state lawmakers have raised
questions about transparency and the ability of the board — most of whose
members do not have college degrees — to lead the 123,000-student system.
In recent months, parents have also complained about their children being
picked up late for school because of a shortage of bus drivers and about
changes in transportation policy.
Baker, who says good schools are crucial to luring new residents and
promoting economic development, has been critical of the system’s progress.
An immediate and permanent change is required, Baker said in a recent
interview.
“I clearly didn’t think the structure we had in the school system worked
from the first day I came in here,” Baker said. “But I wanted to try as
hard as I could from an executive standpoint — not from a legislative
standpoint like I did in years past — to see, in fact, if you could bring
the bully pulpit of the county executive’s office and force change that way.
“You can do it, but you can only take it so far,” Baker said. “I think in
order to have real sustained change that will outlast this administration,
you’ve got to restructure it.”
Baker said he is moving forward with the proposed takeover now because the
school system is looking to hire a superintendent and he believes that
residents should have someone — the county executive — to hold accountable
for the schools. If approved, the new structure would give the next
superintendent immensely more power, as that person would answer directly
to the county executive, county officials said.
There are three finalists for the job of superintendent, who are expected
to appear at a community meeting Tuesday. Baker, who did not interview the
finalists, said the search process should be reopened if “we determine one
of the three is not the best individual. . . . I just think we can’t afford
to get it wrong.”
There was mixed reaction among state officials in Annapolis, whose approval
Baker needs to proceed with his plan.
State Sen. Douglas J.J. Peters (D), chairman of the county’s Senate
delegation, said he wonders whether restructuring would yield academic
improvements.
State Sen. Joanne Benson (D-Prince George’s), a former school administrator
and the delegation’s liaison for education, described Baker’s plan as “a
good fit,” one that will increase accountability.
“I think that a change is needed,” she said. “We also need a facelift for
the reputation of our school system. . . . I don’t have a problem with [the
superintendent] becoming a cabinet-level position.”
Closer to home, Baker is likely to face a power struggle with echoes of the
past. In 2002, when he was a state delegate, he led a successful effort to
dissolve the county’s elected school board, which was replaced by an
appointed board, named by the governor and the county executive. After
public outcry, the county reverted to an elected board in 2006.
The school board has tried to restore public trust in the system, which for
years was embroiled in scandal before the General Assembly dissolved the
elected board. But despite slight gains in standardized test scores, the
school system continues to be embroiled in controversy.
The school board’s chairman, Verjeana M. Jacobs (District 5), said she
could not comment without seeing a copy of the legislation.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a former chief executive of the
Chicago school system, has said that school boards of persistently
struggling systems have a “moral obligation” to consider mayoral control.
Then-D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty turned the District’s troubled school
system into a widely scrutinized experiment in urban education reform when
he took over in 2007. His move led to the dissolution of the elected school
board and the installation of a powerful chancellor, Michelle A. Rhee, who
made national headlines as she moved rapidly to close schools and fire
ineffective teachers and central-office workers.
Rhee had broad, near-unilateral authority to manage the schools, which
supporters of mayoral control say allowed her to do what the old school
board — mired in politics and partisanship — had failed to do: establish a
functioning bureaucracy that could deliver textbooks on time, complete
much-needed building renovations and bring new urgency to the task of
improving education.
Rhee also overhauled teacher evaluations, linking job security and pay to
student performance on standardized tests, and she persuaded the teachers
union to give up job protections in return for higher pay.
The changes — celebrated by some, reviled by others — remain controversial
and unproven. The District’s traditional public schools have shown modest
improvement in student proficiency, but graduation rates are still among
the lowest in the country. And the city’s traditional public schools are
struggling to keep pace with public charter schools, which have enjoyed
surging enrollment and are poised to have a majority of the city’s students
in coming years.
Unlike the District takeover, Baker’s proposal would keep the elected
school board intact. But the panel would not hire or oversee the
superintendent. Instead, the schools chief would become a cabinet-level
position, appointed by Baker and confirmed by the County Council. The
county executive and council would oversee the school system’s budget and
capital programs. More than half of the county’s budget goes to support the
schools.
The board would continue to hold hearings, but it would focus almost
entirely on academic policy and parental engagement, Baker said. It would
have the ability to move funding up or down by 1 percent in any major
category of the school budget, similar to the council’s current role,
county officials said.
The elected nine-member board would gain six members, including three with
voting privileges: a county executive appointee with education experience,
a council appointee from the business community and the president of the
Parent Teacher Association. Three nonvoting, ex-officio members would come
from Prince George’s Community College, Bowie State University and the
University of Maryland at College Park.
Bob Ross, president of the county branch of the NAACP, said he is “totally
opposed” to the proposal because it “puts me in the mind of what they did
in D.C., and I just can’t go along with that.”
County officials said the takeover would allow the government to coordinate
resources with the school system, potentially sending more money to the
classrooms. “This is about every single child getting the best education
possible,” Baker said.
The county executive said the proposal is also designed to clearly define
the role of the school board, which has given Baker “pushback” over his
efforts to become involved in public education: making weekly visits to
schools, forming an education commission to advise him on ways to improve
county schools; and naming Hite to the transition team after Baker’s
election more than two years ago.
“There was hesitance of [Hite] being on the transition team of the incoming
county executive because they felt like he was putting himself before the
board,” Baker said. “Well, they are the policy arm. . . . I don’t think
they were doing it because they didn’t want a relationship with us. I think
they were doing it because they don’t understand the roles.”
Hite said he did not want to offer an opinion about what might or might not
work in Prince George’s because he no longer works for the county. But he
said he had a good working relationship with Baker and has seen the
benefits of the structure in Philadelphia, where there is “no light between
the school district and the mayor’s office.”
“We have access to all of their department resources, and they have access
to all of us,” Hite said. “It provides for clearer channels of
communication.”
Baker, who realizes good schools are key to the county’s prosperity, said
the county has made significant strides in areas over which he and the
council have control: public safety and economic development.
“We are attracting major development here,” Baker said. “You look at public
safety, it’s going in the right direction. The only thing that is outside
of our ability is education, and given the fact that we will have a new
superintendent, and if you are going to do something, to me this is the
time that you do it.”

Emma Brown and Miranda S. Spivack contributed to this report.

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