Heidi Ramirez, who recently resigned from the state's School Reform Commission that oversees Philadelphia public schools, has been getting the heroine treatment for putting up a good fight.

But a different image comes to my mind when I think about what Ramirez has done. Remember the old TV show Branded starring Chuck Connors? It always began with the Army painting a yellow streak down his uniform back for cowardice.

Yes, that's harsh. Ramirez, though, deserves it. She is being hailed as the only one on the five-member SRC who would ask tough questions of new school district chief executive officer Arlene Ackerman. But a little push-back by Ackerman was all it took to cause Ramirez to abandon ship.

Ramirez didn't owe her job to Ackerman, so why was she afraid of her? Gov. Rendell first appointed Ramirez to the SRC in 2007 to finish the term of Jim Nevels, who had resigned. In March, Rendell appointed the first Latina on the board to a full five-year term.

So strange was Ramirez's decision to resign four months later that there was speculation that Rendell had sought her ouster in a deal with Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) to break up the logjam in state budget negotiations.

Rendell and Pileggi denied that allegation. In fact, Rendell told the Inquirer Editorial Board that he told Ramirez he would support her if she stayed on the school board.

The denials of Rendell and Pileggi ring hollow, given the Democratic governor's appointment late Thursday of a prominent Republican lawyer to replace Ramirez. But if there was such a scheme, why did she concede?

Ackerman confronted Ramirez last year with an accusation that the Hispanic board member had acted in a racist manner toward some of the black superintendent's staff members. But Ramirez and Ackerman deny that race was a source of friction between them.

So, if she cares so much about the children, why did Ramirez give up?

Ramirez said the relationship between the SRC and Ackerman, who became superintendent in June 2008, was "making it more difficult for me to honor my commitments to the governor and the community." She later said the two had much different views of the role the SRC should play.

Right, and you can go to almost any school district in America and find the same jockeying for power between school boards and superintendents. Typically, one board member is more vocal than others. That person can play a crucial role in keeping a voracious superintendent in check.

Just as crucial, however, is a superintendent who will stand up to a bombastic board that tries to micromanage a school district. In other words, both need to be strong. The board sets policy, but the superintendent's recommendations should direct it. Everyone should ask lots of questions.

There seemed to be some academic jousting between Ackerman and Ramirez. Both have doctorates. Ackerman, though, also has run three urban school districts, while Ramirez runs a teacher training and research program at Temple University. Ackerman's experience trumps anything Ramirez ever got, or offered, in a classroom. But that doesn't give her a right to be condescending toward Ramirez or any other SRC member.

Nonetheless, if Ackerman's condescension is all Ramirez can offer as a reason to quit, she's a coward.

She is sending the wrong message to schoolchildren, who need to be taught to stand up for what is right. And it's the wrong message to teachers, too many of whom want to throw up their hands in surrender in the face of the many difficulties they encounter daily in Philadelphia's schools.

At least Ramirez is walking away from a job she no longer can stomach. Some teachers - and thank God, they're the minority - hate their jobs but keep coming back, all the time blaming the students for the poor results of their meager instructional efforts.

"Don't you understand," these sad-sack teachers ask, "that my students are poor, and come from broken homes in violent neighborhoods, and have no goals that motivate them to learn?" Yes, I do understand. I also understand that too many teaching environments are just deplorable.

It takes a special person to teach effectively in such an environment. Special teachers should get special compensation. But the ones who are not up to the task of big-city teaching ought to find another way to earn an income. Those teachers have already surrendered, so they need to go.

Now, some might still have some fight in them. With the right encouragement, not necessarily more pay, they might become energized. It would help to know that someone on the SRC is asking questions that will improve schools and help children learn.

Ramirez, though, has decided that person isn't going to be her. She can no longer stand the heat. So, here's hoping her announced replacement, former Blank Rome L.L.P. law firm chairman David Girard-diCarlo, has guts.

City schools don't need an acquiescent SRC, nor a subservient CEO. They need strong voices at both ends, whose common goal should be enough to vanquish any need to outtalk each other.

E-mail editorial page editor Harold Jackson at hjackson@phillynews.com.