By Fritz Edelstein
April 26, 2004

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley on April 15 met in Chicago with Mayor Richard M. Daley, his staff and school leaders on what Chicago had learned after nine years of mayoral responsibility for the city's public schools. The focus of the day-long meeting was on financial accountability, infrastructure improvements and academic improvements. O'Malley stated after the meeting that he wants to emulate Chicago's most visible and successful school reform by first spearheading a campaign over the next six months to upgrade Baltimore's public school buildings which need more than $1 billion in improvements.

This trip was scheduled after O'Malley decided to bail out the Baltimore City Schools in lieu of receiving state funds and giving up significant authority to Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr. A memorandum of understanding between Baltimore and the State has given O'Malley the opening he needed to follow Daley's lead in rebuilding the physical and fiscal infrastructure of a school system.

Accompanying O'Malley were Deputy Mayor Michael Enright, CitiStat director Matthew Gallagher and Carlton Epps, Sr, chief operating officer of the Baltimore City Schools. They heard from a variety of people and not always a rosy picture was painted. The Chicago staff admitted they had not figured everything out. Even with all of the improvements in the system, Chicago with its $3.8 billion school budget is facing a $100 million deficit this year.

O'Malley said he would not ask the Maryland legislature for the type of full authority that Daley received in 1995 and used to rejuvenate the Chicago public schools. However, he will be taking a lead from Daley in an effort to restore pride in Baltimore's schools by improving their appearance. O'Malley plans to recruit Baltimore's building trade unions, developers and businesses to donate labor, materials and other resources. Also, he said he would initiate a citywide civic campaign to raise money and gain partners to further improve not only the infrastructure of the schools but also each school's landscaping.

Forming coalitions is a hallmark of mayoral leadership and involvement in education and is a lesson learned during the visit to Chicago. O'Malley wants to take on the challenge and is best stated by Daley that, "when you take full responsibility, you-re saying to the public that I firmly believe that your child's education is the most important part of life."

Once O'Malley made the political decision to go it alone and not take state funds, he followed a trend in cities of increased mayoral leadership and involvement in the school system. O'Malley admits, "it did take me a little bit to come to the realization that there is no more important job for a person to do as mayor than improve schools."