Academic apocalypse in Baltimore
Kaylee McGhee White
The reason school-choice policies are exploding across the country right now is that the argument for them is clear. One look at the data on students’ reading and mathematics proficiency proves that the public education system is woefully incapable of even getting students up to speed on the basics, let alone setting them up for a lifetime of achievement.
A new report from the Maryland State Department of Education, for example, revealed there are 23 schools in Baltimore, including elementary, middle, and high schools, where there are zero students who are proficient in math. That means every single student in these schools failed to demonstrate basic mathematical know-how when tested by the state. Another 20 schools had only one or two students who tested at grade level. In fact, only 7% of third- through eighth-graders demonstrated mathematics proficiency on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program.
Baltimore’s public school system operates on a $1.6 billion budget and spends about $21,000 on each student, according to Fox45. And their students can’t even add or subtract!
When confronted with the news that thousands of students in their state are being left by the school system to a life of academic failure, Maryland’s elected leaders balked.
“I’m not going to talk about it,” Baltimore Councilman Ryan Dorsey told Fox45 reporters.
State Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Democrat, had a similar response, telling reporters he would answer their questions “[when] you do a story about students who are succeeding in City School. You never do,” he said. (Maybe that’s because, at many schools, there literally aren’t any students who are succeeding.)
When asked whom he holds accountable for the schools’ abysmal test scores, Rosenberg told Fox45, “Your boss and the distorted coverage you provide.” (Fox45, a local news outlet, is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.)
Is it any wonder that so many families are clamoring for the freedom to leave the public school system? How can state leaders possibly defend keeping Baltimore children, the vast majority of whom are underprivileged, in schools where they will learn literally nothing?
The only way to fix an education system as broken as Baltimore’s is to get as many students out of it as quickly as possible.