The 1997 legislation creating a city-state partnership to oversee Baltimore schools required that the partnership be evaluated every five years. This is one of those years, and the city and state school board will be holding four joint public hearings in the coming days. BCPSS and MSDE also had to hire a consultant to write this rather dense evaluation (available here along with the hearing schedule) of how the school system functions under its current governance structure.

Under that structure, the mayor and the governor jointly appoint the city school board. Critics, most vocal back in 2004 amid the school system's financial collapse, charge that the partnership leaves neither the city nor the state accountable. But yet again this year, the General Assembly hasn't shown much appetite to change things, despite the latest in a series of bills that would provide for a partially elected board.

What are your thoughts on the city-state partnership? Is it the best way to govern Baltimore's schools?