For decades, presidents have been popping in and out of Maryland and Virginia schools for media events that get national publicity for them when they’re unveiling new education policy or budgets.

I witnessed one of those visits yesterday when President Barack Obama came to Parkville Middle School and Center of Technology, which is in the district of which I’m on the board. The whole thing was staged and tightly controlled by the White House.

Of local media, electronic and print — only the Baltimore Sun — was allowed in. Video images were transmitted by government  cameras (which apparently was okay with the local TV stations). Only some students and teachers at the school were allowed to actually see POTUS. Even the school board, initially invited, was later dis-invited. Didn’t bother me, but the board president and vice president also were dis-invited.

The government had been working on security arrangements since 2/2, 12 days earlier, with squads of Secret Service (or whatever) staying at a local hotel. The whole enterprise must have cost U.S. taxpayers $50,000 minimum. Such a waste!

The school, as it happens, is terrific, and well deserved the recognition it would not otherwise have gotten. (Explanatory and even feature reporting having gone the way of the dodo.) And the kids’ reaction was wonderful.

The district held a press conference in the afternoon, long after POTUS’ 45 minutes, with four kids who had actually conversed with the President.

What got me was the phony-baloney, tightly controlled production and the willingness of the local media to play along.

When I was the Sun’s education editor, by the way, George W. played just the opposite game. From time to time, he would invite a small group of outside-the-Beltway reporters to the White House. He knew that, even if he didn’t say anything, it would be front-page news.  The one time I was invited, he actually did say something – that he was giving up his effort to make vouchers an official part of federal policy.

– Mike Bowler, formerly an education reporter and editor for The Baltimore Sun and op-ed page editor for The Evening Sun, is a member of the Baltimore County Board of Education. This essay is adapted with permission from Bowler’s remarks on an Education Writers Association blog.