After watching the Anne Arundel County government, school system and community college fight petty turf battles for years, it's nice to see them at last pledging to work together.
The new partnership of County Executive John G. Gary, School Superintendent Carol S. Parham and Anne Arundel Community College President Martha A. Smith makes sense at a time when the county must operate within the confines of a voter-imposed property tax cap.
By combining their efforts, the government, schools and college may be able to save money on construction, vehicle maintenance, health insurance and pensions.
Their new alliance also appears to include a good bit of horse-trading. Mr. Gary wants the ability to appoint the school board, and he needs the help of the school community to persuade the state legislature to grant him that authority.
So in his hand of friendship, Mr. Gary is dangling the promise of $35 million for a computer system Dr. Parham wants in order to upgrade and link the school computer labs.
His commitment to the Advanced School Automation Project (ASAP) is important to school officials who have been trying to squeeze money out of a skeptical County Council.
Although horse-trading is a political necessity, we urge Mr. Gary and the County Council to look carefully at this hugely expensive beast before leading it into the barn.
The school computers certainly need to be upgraded, but many questions remain about ASAP, including the cost. School finance officials say the $35 million price tag isn't firm, and could change either up or down depending on how the pilot study progresses.
Time poses another problem. The schools still must buy computer equipment and train teachers who are to incorporate the computers in their lessons. The actual computer linking of the schools within the pilot study is not expected before March 1.
That leaves little time to assess the computer system and present a report to the County Council, which wanted to see results by April before deciding whether to provide additional funding in the budget that begins next July 1.
At a recent press conference, Mr. Gary called ASAP one of his sacred cows. We fear that unless the county moves cautiously, the project instead could turn out to be a white elephant.