Fact-finding school visits or political posturing?
Comptroller Peter Franchot visited Baltimore City schools Tuesday, drawing praise from supporters who appreciate him taking a more active role than his predecessors and drawing fire from critics who call his visits political grandstanding in preparation for a run for governor.
His visits to Dunbar High and Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary schools are part of a tour designed to help Franchot decide which school construction projects to fund before a vote May 21, he said.
“I want to have a sense of what we?re voting on,” he said.
C.D. Witherspoon, president of the African-American Democratic Club of Baltimore City, said he was impressed with Franchot?s visits.
“We never had a comptroller who interacted like this,” he said. “He?susing this position as a steppingstone to connect to the community. Usually, Baltimore?s forgotten once candidates get into office.”
Bennie Williams, chief of staff for city schools chief Andres Alonso, also praised Franchot.
“It shows he has an interest and wants to see where money is going with his own eyes instead of having his staff brief him,” he said.
One visitor to Eutaw called the visit “political.”
The same accusations surfaced in
April when Franchot visited overcrowded schools in Baltimore County, home of County Executive Jim Smith, his rumored primary challenger in 2010.
“This is about Peter Franchot, and Peter Franchot getting his name out in Baltimore County and grandstanding,” Ellen Kobler, a Smith spokeswoman, said at the time.
“The comptroller is clearly engaged in yet what again seems to be a series of political stunts.”
Former Comptroller William DonaldSchaefer visited schools occasionally but not as a part of a systematic tour before votes on school construction funding, said Christine Duray Feldman, a Franchot spokeswoman.
The Board of Public Works ? Franchot, Gov. Martin O?Malley and Treasurer Nancy Kopp ? is to vote on $340 million worth of construction funding for 145 school projects for the upcoming fiscal year.
About 80 percent of Baltimore City school buildings are in poor condition, said Bebe Verdery, education director for the Maryland ACLU.
