The recent article "Several senators oppose Grasmick's school reform" (Jan. 22) appearing as it did one day after The Sun's front page article headlined "O'Malley plans fund shift to sidestep service cuts" (Jan. 21) underscores the challenge that Maryland legislators face in squaring inherently political concerns with the need to adjust to today's fiscal realities. In plain English, should our legislative leaders tend to the political interests of an important constituency, the teachers' union, or should they make a serious play for the hundreds of millions of education dollars on offer through the federal Race to the Top program?

In a sense, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's choice is easier today than it might have been in years past, and not only because of the state's desperate need for more funding. The political winds on school governance and teacher accountability have also shifted. Consider that the Race to the Top funding criteria are the brainchild of arguably the most liberal president in generations. And consider that the powers that be in New York, California and Massachusetts, no less bastions of liberal politics than our beloved Land of Pleasant Living, are, with precedent-shattering proposed changes to their charter and teacher accountability rules, attempting to elbow past Maryland in the queue for Race to the Top dollars.

And on the issue of charter schools, consider that a charter middle school in a very poor Baltimore City neighborhood has in recent years consistently outscored almost every middle school in the state on math and reading standardized tests. Or consider that an Anne Arundel County charter middle school with the highest minority population in the county has eliminated (yes, eliminated) the minority achievement gap, based on standardized test results. Or that every charter school in the state, from Baltimore City to St. Mary's County, has a waiting list.

But despite the huge dollars at stake and these amazing facts about charter schools, our political leaders appear thus far to have defaulted to familiar political postures -- postures that our friends in Albany, Sacramento and Boston have shown a willingness to push past -- as if the political and intellectual climate for education policy has not radically shifted.

This is a kind of "lead, follow or get out of the way" moment for the Maryland General Assembly. Sen. Paul G. Pinsky's day job is with the teacher's union, and we both expect him to oppose Race to the Top-induced changes in education policy and respect him for taking that position. Can there be any doubt, however, which of those three choices, "lead, follow or get out of the way," will ultimately suit the Senate president?

Senator Miller: Maryland's fine teachers will thrive in a world of three- or four-year tenure rules and enhanced evaluations. And, they'll probably agree, they can use the extra dough.

David Borinsky, Baltimore

The writer is president of the Maryland Charter School Network.