Flanked by a group of supporters outside Thurgood Marshall High School, Baltimore mayoral candidate Keiffer Mitchell unveiled an education plan Tuesday that would end the school system’s city-state partnership.

“There is no bigger difference in the race for mayor than on education,” said Councilman Mitchell, D-11th District, a member of the City Council’s education committee.

“Some people in this race are happy with the status quo,” he said. “I believe we need a change.”

The most important step to increasing accountability is restoring control of the school system to the mayor, Mitchell said.

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“What we’ve come to expect from the city-state partnership [is] … lots of fingers get pointed but nothing gets done,” Mitchell said.

But Del. Jill Carter, another mayoral candidate, said she has worked in the legislature to end the city-state partnership and got little support from local officials such as Mitchell.

“I agree we need to end the partnership, but we could have been working toward that goal if I had people like the councilman helping to push the legislation,” she said. “I’m glad to see he supports my legislative agenda now.”

If elected, Mitchell said he would appoint a chancellor of education and pay teachers at hard-to-staff schools up to 15 percent more. He also wants to give principals more control over operating decisions at schools.

The plan also called for a more transparent budget process and school-by-school efficiency audits to regulate spending.

“I want to go through the budget line by line and see where we can cut out administrative fees,” he said.

Mitchell plans to release the second half of his plan next week.

mmcilroy@baltimoreexaminer.com