WASHINGTON 鈥� Ben Jealous, the former NAACP president and now a Democratic candidate for governor in Maryland, believes the Prince George鈥檚 County school chief should be fired.
In a news release, Jealous said management in the state鈥檚 second-largest school system suffers from 鈥渋ncompetence and failure of leadership.鈥� And he called on Prince George鈥檚 County Executive Rushern Baker 鈥� another Democratic gubernatorial hopeful 鈥� to fire Dr. Kevin Maxwell, the school system鈥檚 CEO.
Jealous isn鈥檛 the first to call for Maxwell鈥檚 ouster. Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican running for re-election, has long been critical of the county鈥檚 school system and Maxwell鈥檚 performance. In a recent news conference, Hogan repeated his call for the firing of Maxwell, who told 草莓传媒: 鈥淚鈥檓 not running for office. I鈥檓 trying to run a school system.鈥�
Baker, who has polled ahead of the crowd of at least eight Democrats running for governor, dismissed Jealous鈥� attack as political and called it a 鈥淟arry-Hogan-style political attack.鈥�
The Prince George鈥檚 County school system has been the subject of a state audit that found glaring flaws in the school system鈥檚 application of its own grading policy, as well as shoddy record-keeping that put hundreds of students鈥� diplomas in question.
A spokeswoman for the Jealous campaign said that news had troubled the candidate, but that the most recent allegation of double-digit raises being handed out to certain central staff employees 鈥� in violation of collective bargaining 鈥� was the straw that broke the camel鈥檚 back.
That accusation came from three members of the Prince George鈥檚 County School board: Edward Burroughs III, David Murray and Raaheela Ahmed, who refer to themselves as 鈥淭he Accountability and Solutions Caucus.鈥�
