The governor hugs the middle of the road on everything — including the coronavirus pandemic.
Governor Charlie Baker blanked the 2020 presidential race — choosing neither President Trump nor challenger Joe Biden. When it comes to how Massachusetts schools are handling the coronavirus pandemic, you might say he blanked that, too, by failing to provide statewide guidance on how remote learning should be taught.
Because there’s no uniformity, there’s inequity. As Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, told the Globe’s Naomi Martin, “If the governor wants to say, ‘This is what we’re going to do and how we’ll do it,’ we’re all in. But right now, this has been left to local decision-making.”
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It’s classic small-government conservative thinking. And it’s also classic Charlie Baker. Back in May, playing off a quote from legendary Texas politico Jim Hightower, Michael Jonas of Commonwealth magazine wrote that there’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines, dead armadillos — and the Republican governor of Massachusetts. At the time, that approach served Baker well. But it’s looking less and less like bold leadership on every front, including the pandemic. And it’s hard to figure exactly where Baker is going with it.
Will he seek a third term? Is he vying for a spot in the Biden administration? Against all odds and conventional thinking about the prospects for a Republican who favors abortion rights and gay marriage, does he think there’s a place for him in a 2024 presidential race? So far, he hasn’t shared his ultimate goal. Meanwhile, he skips back and forth across the yellow line in the middle of the road, trying to avoid the armadillo’s fate.
Baker finally started to criticize Trump on a variety of issues, from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed about 238,000 Americans so far, to his refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost the election. But then Baker blanked his presidential ballot. That looked lame as measured against Governor Phil Scott of Vermont — another Republican governor of a progressive state — who endorsed Bill Weld during the Republican primary season and said he voted for Joe Biden on Election Day. Over the weekend, Baker became one of a few Republicans to publicly congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. But he wasn’t nearly as bold as Maryland’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, who slammed Trump for declaring premature victory and falsely describing the voting as a “fraud on the American public.” Hogan, who is considering a run for president in 2024, labeled Trump’s reaction “a really bad mistake.”
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If Baker’s message on the national political stage is less than consistent, he remains popular in Massachusetts and has been getting high marks for his handling of the pandemic. Yet there’s increasing criticism about his handling of COVID-19, especially when it comes to the schools. As the Globe reported, only half of the state’s 40 largest districts specify how much teacher-led instruction time they expect students to receive. And a third of the districts have yet to come up with testing plans to measure how the spring’s remote learning affected academic progress.
The Baker administration said it focused first on health and safety measures, and that’s certainly important. But parents are rightly concerned about learning time and attendance requirements. The state’s ball-dropping has long-term consequences, which break along racial and class lines and also affect children with disabilities and those with other special education needs. Wealthy parents who are dissatisfied with their public schools can switch their children to private schools. Less wealthy parents can’t.
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As Keri Rodrigues, founder of Massachusetts Parents United, told the Globe, “To me, this is really a failure of leadership. You have every single community trying to recreate the wheel instead of having a coordinated effort around best practices.”
There are no easy answers to the pandemic, and it’s hard to please everyone. Businesses are fighting for survival. Even in Massachusetts, some people don’t like wearing masks, and protesters have been marching in front of Baker’s home to express opposition to state-mandated virus restrictions.
Teachers, meanwhile, are worried about their health and safety — and parents are worried about their children’s education.
Baker has been urging schools to open, yet not all of them can or will. He can blank a presidential ballot. But he can’t blank his obligation to all those kids who rely on remote learning, because that’s all there is for them.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @joan_vennochi.
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November 10, 2020 at 03:48AM
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Baker blanks presidential race and remote learning plan for schools - The Boston Globe
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