After months of calling for her resignation, Gov. Martin O?Malley abandoned a long-standing feud Monday with state Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick and convinced lawmakers to scrap legislation to force her out.
“We?ve all heard words about coming together and putting divisions of the past behind us,” O?Malley said at an Annapolis news conference with the schools chief. “In that spirit, Dr. Grasmick and I have had a real good talk.”
O?Malley?s decision to end a potentially long and divisive legislative battle to oust her won praise from lawmakers.
“There were enough members of the House and Senate satisfied with Nancy?s performance,” said Sen. Larry Haines, R-Baltimore and Carroll counties.
The abrupt reversal saved the General Assembly a great deal of stress, said Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George?s, chairman of the Senate Education Subcommittee.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Democrat, said O?Malley and Grasmick share the same educational priorities.
At O?Malley?s request, Miller abandoned a bill Monday that would have booted Grasmick from office.
But Miller said he would support legislation to give governors more say in who serves as school superintendent.
“There?s no question that the law needs to be changed,” he said.
O?Malley recently called Grasmick ? a political ally to former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ? a “pawn” for the Republican Party and blasted her devotion to the high-stakes standardized tests that have become the hallmark of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The pair also clashed during O?Malley?s tenure as mayor of Baltimore, when she pushed for state takeover of 11 failing city schools.
Grasmick praised the governor?s move.
“We?re talking about a million students; we?re talking about 80,000 teachers,” she said. “And it?s really important that we work together on behalf of all of those individuals.”
The Democratic governor and the veteran state schools chief agreed to create a biannual teachers? survey to get feedback on how to improve schools, start more career and technology programs, and work to attract and retain strong principals.
