Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of NAACP, said his organization has garnered more media attention from Monday?s call for city school board elections than it has in 20 years.
And that?s fine with him.
“The school board blames the state, the state blames the city, and mayor blames the governor and governor blames the mayor,” Cheatham says of Baltimore?s embattled school system.
“This is a like a domestic squabble ? the parents are fighting ? and no one is thinking of the children. We need accountability.”
Cheatam and the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are calling for a hybrid school board of elected and appointed officials. Currently the nine board members, including the superintendent, are appointed jointly by Mayor Martin O?Malley and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich. Cheatam said, however, that most of the appointees are beholden to one or the other. He would like to see candidates for at least five of nine positions go before the voters.
The Baltimore school board was elected until 1997 with the creation of the city/state partnership in the state assembly.
According to the National School Board Association, 90 percent of the school boards in the United States are elected, but Maryland is a different story. Statewide, 14 of the 24 Maryland school boards are elected, according to Bill Reinhard of the Maryland State Board of Education. Baltimore City delegate Jill P. Carter introduced legislation in the state house to change city school board appointments to elected positions, but the bill has not reached the floor for a vote.
New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, along locally with Prince Georges and Baltimore County are other large school districts with appointed school boards. Cleveland and Boston were elected, but are also now appointed, highlighting a trend of mayoral takeovers of city schools in the last decade ? also currently discussed in Los Angeles. However, Houston, Miami, Las Vegas, St. Louis, San Francisco and every other of the largest 50 urban school district boards is elected.
According to Katrina Kelley, at Council of Urban Boards of Education, studies do not indicate one method of governance is inherently superior to the other. Neither O?Malley or Ehrlich have taken a position on the issue.
“There is no silver bullet, no easy answer,” Kelley said. “Quality candidates, elected or appointed, make the difference. The experts have not been able to conclude one system is better than other.”
Cheatham acknowledged there is no conclusive evidence that an elected board is superior to an appointed board.
“That?s why we?re advocating for hybrid board,” Cheatam said. “But we need people, the stakeholders in the community to be involved in the process. Right now we?re on the outside.”
