Late last week, Secretary Duncan (and his able team) acted on what I have every reason to believe were noble intentions. Unfortunately, the secretary missed a golden opportunity and possibly did more harm than good for reform in my beloved Maryland.
On Friday, Duncan, with Rev. Al Sharpton and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, visited Baltimore's superb KIPP Ujima Village charter school, consistently one of the state's highest-scoring schools despite its inner-city location. Because of union attacks, Ujima was recently forced to cut several teaching positions and end Saturday school. So egregious were its actions that numerous national outlets admonished the union, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and CNN.
I was terribly excited about Duncan's visit and fully expected him to deliver a firm, unambiguous message. I figured he would begin with a restrained but unmistakable scolding of the union for jeopardizing the school's success, and (since the RTT guidelines emphasize the need of state charter laws to support high-quality charters) finish by making crystal-clear that unless Maryland changed its charter law, a grant would be all but out of the question. Since Duncan had delivered tough messages to state leaders elsewhere, I considered a Baltimore equivalent to be a fait accompli.
But the secretary demurred. Accounts by the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and Capital News Service indicate that he neither reprimanded the union about its tactics nor warned policymakers about their law. Both the Post and the Sun, however, reported that Gingrich did what Duncan should have:
I hope that everybody in Maryland will call the governor, will call the legislators, and will let them know that if they want every child in Baltimore to have the chance to have a quality education ... they have to reform the charter school law.
I asked the Department about the secretary's reported silence and an official said that the secretary did urge the sides to find a solution. I wasn't at the event, so I take the department at its word. But at very least we have to wonder about the strength of that message given that three different reporters didn't mention it.
But even if Duncan urged the sides to find a solution, why didn't he go farther and say, ???This law must be changed???? When he directly and publicly addressed policy flaws in California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Illinois, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, legislatures and governors responded by making changes???and quick.??Why did Maryland get a pass? I'm completely flummoxed.
Had Duncan not visited at all, the state's charter advocates could have made the case to policymakers that if they wanted a RTT grant they needed to change the law. But that's no longer an option. Because of the secretary's silence, should anyone seek to amend the law, charter opponents can simply reply, ???Secretary Duncan tells states when he wants their charter laws changed. He visited a charter school in our state, and said nothing about it. Obviously, we're fine.???
Think I'm overreacting?
On Monday, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley gave a speech about RTT, and afterward reporters asked him about the speculation that a revision of the charter law might be needed in order to be eligible. Said the governor, "I'm not sure there is a need."
Had Secretary Duncan simply done what he had in numerous other states, those words would have never come out of Governor O'Malley's mouth. Instead, I'm 98 percent certain Maryland's miserable charter law will go unchanged during the upcoming legislative session.