Everybody insisted they cared about the children in 11 failing Baltimore City schools, but the question was how tough legislators were going to be on the officials who run them.

The answer was not tough enough for Republican lawmakers and Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who lost a 30-17 vote to override his veto of a measure to delay state takeover of seven city middle schools and four high schools until 2008. The state School Board wanted someone else to run those schools next year.