The latest TV ad for Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s re-election campaign, highlighting problems with Baltimore City schools, is drawing sharp complaints from Democratic legislators and the manager of Mayor Martin O?Malley?s campaign for governor, calling it misleading and negative.
The 30-second spots feature average citizens ? seven black men and women, several white women and no white men ? talking on camera with shots of city schools, and newspaper quotes.
“Maryland has some of the best public schools in the country,” a younger black woman says in the ad. “Unfortunately, some of the worst are here in Baltimore City,” a 20-something black man says. “So when Gov. Ehrlich and the independent school board wanted to fix the schools immediately, we applauded. ? Unfortunately, a few politicians stopped them.”
At a news conference organized by the state Democratic Party, Sen. Joan Carter Conway, vice chairwoman of the education committee that passed legislation blocking state takeover of 11 schools, said, “I?m really appalled by [the ads].”
“Everybody knows the city has some problems,” said Conway, whose district includes a school earlier taken over by a private contractor, Edison Schools.
“I?m not saying it?s bad” at the Edison run schools, “but it?s no better,” Conway said.
Senate Majority Leader Nathaniel McFadden, a teacher and administrator in city schools for 37 years, said, “I?m not pleased with the performance of the students in this system” but the state “needs to focus attention on improvement” and collaboration.
He went on to say that the Ehrlich ads imply that there are no good schools in Baltimore, but there are, including Baltimore Polytechnic and Western high schools, where the event was held. The Ehrlich administration emphasizes the poor scores at the 11 schools targeted for takeover, but the Democrats stress the progress made in test scores throughout the city in the first six grades, along with improved graduation rates.
“Bob Ehrlich has a lot of audacity to attack the progress of school children in Baltimore while he used a loophole in the law to break his promise to fully invest in our schools,” said O?Malley-Brown campaign manager Josh White in an e-mail. “And now, instead of offering a plan for a way forward, he hides behind negative ads attacking the hard work and progress of students, parents and teachers.”
