After Gov. Robert Ehrlich gave another impassioned plea for state takeover of failing Baltimore City schools at a business lunch, State School Superintendent Nancy Grasmick accosted an old friend, public relations executive George Wills.
“The governor was right,” Grasmick told Wills, jabbing her finger. “The business community was silent” when the state legislature delayed the takeover of 11 city schools until 2008, overriding Ehrlich?s veto of the measure. “I?m wild about this,” admitted Grasmick, known for her rather flat, dispassionate speaking style.
At his annual luncheon talk to the members of Maryland Business for Responsive Government, Ehrlich gave what is becoming something like his standard stump speech, listing the accomplishments of his administration. Afterwards Democratic Party Chairman Terry Lierman mocked Ehrlich?s accomplishments in a statement. Ehrlich “talks a great game about being business friendly but he is the one who proposed, supported and signed into law a vast array of taxes that impact directly on the business bottom line and the pocketbooks of working families.”
But at the luncheon Ehrlich?s accomplishments took a back seat because the governor got more riled up about the schools situation. “It?s the only issue I?ve ever seen where there is literally not another side,” hesaid at a near shout. “And everybody knew it.”
“These poor, mostly African American kids do not have a shot at life. They come from dysfunctional families, dysfunctional neighborhoods. In most cases they can?t catch a break,” Ehrlich said. “We have to provide them ? a safe school, a school where they learn, where they actually have a shot in this knowledge economy we like to brag about.”
“You?re sentencing them in the interest of short term political calculation, and I?m not going to stand for it, the people will not stand for it,”
Ehrlich said. The crowd of several hundred mostly white male business executives gave the governor a standing ovation, led by his wife KendelEhrlich at the head table.
