a day ago
How politics undermine Prince George's County Public Schools success
Prince George's County Public Schools headquarters in Upper Marlboro. (Photo by Danielle E. Gaines/Maryland Matters)
As a veteran parent leader and advocate for six years in Prince George's County, I've seen my share of politically motivated nonsense. The mistreatment of Superintendent Millard House II over the past several weeks is easily the most shameful.
Put simply, the Prince George's County Educators' Association (PGCEA) and Board of Education got this wrong and should be ashamed of the role they played in his departure. They unfairly attacked a good man who was the right leader for PGCPS and making real progress.
Superintendent House earned my complete confidence over the past two years, which is why I remain willing to unequivocally publicly defend his record today. And I equally defend the dedicated department heads and PGCPS professionals who deserve full credit for their successes.
By every metric, PGCPS should have been negotiating a contract extension. Under Superintendent House, graduation rates rose above 80%, including a 15-point increase for English learners. Major transportation reforms led to significant improvements, with on-time performance now above 80% and a new tracking app and electric buses on the way. School safety investments resulted in a 46% drop in student incidents. And PGCPS had a highly successful Annapolis advocacy effort this year that helped save Community Schools funding and about two-thirds of funding originally at risk of being cut.
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Let's be clear what happened. Some county politicians, board members and special interests would rather play political games and undermine our students' future than allow major PGCPS successes and any credit for the superintendent. They staged a leadership coup behind closed doors, with no opportunity for public input, while putting a $2.9 billion school system at risk of turning into a patronage system for political appointments.
Past is prologue, as we already saw similar shenanigans at the Board of Education level several years ago as board staff positions were used to hire political allies at taxpayer expense, with many hires ending in controversy.
That is the historical context for this moment, and yet even knowing the professional risk of refusing to play along with unseemly and inappropriate demands, Superintendent House displayed true character, serving as the bulwark who bravely said, 'No,' and attempted to keep PGCPS from chaos.
I've been through six years of PGCPS battles and seen these games too many times before. Past board members attempted to play politics and micromanage former CEO Dr. Monica Goldson on COVID-19 policy and other issues. She also pushed back, and even on the rare issues where we didn't agree, we shared mutual respect, and I could always trust her to do the right thing and act in PGCPS' best interest.
Now, it's the same playbook, next chapter for Superintendent House. The same politicians who worked to undermine PGCPS accomplishments the past few months had the audacity to blame the superintendent for their own sabotage. And some of the same characters central to this coup did the same thing early in his tenure, nearly derailing more than $800 million in new school construction. Parent leaders called out their games then, and won't be silent now.
Despite daily PGCPS successes, one constant continues to threaten our school system: Too much political interference in what should be administrative operations. To truly succeed, we must allow administrative leadership to be immune from politics. Hire a qualified education expert as superintendent, give them a four-year term, then stay out of the way.
That doesn't exclude important oversight on policies, budget and key appointments. But short of serious malfeasance, any superintendent must have the security to do the job we hired them to do. What sane, qualified superintendent would want to work in Prince George's County after the disgraceful behavior of the past few months?
Finally, we have created chaos at a moment PGCPS can least afford it. With a likely legislative special session in October and challenging state budget situation, good luck trying to win much-needed resources as Prince George's County proves incapable of governing ourselves responsibly.
If PGCEA leadership had taken a fraction of the energy they spent attacking the Superintendent and used it to truly fight for protecting Blueprint funding, perhaps PGCPS could more easily meet their contract demands.
Instead, now some other school district will gain a highly qualified and successful Superintendent while PGCPS searches for our fourth leader since 2018. That is no way to run a world-class school district, and like always, it will be the students of PGCPS who pay the price. And once again, the same old Prince George's politics to blame.
