Racism in Baltimore — Racial Inequity in Educational Outcomes.
This week saw another report demonstrating the insidious nature of racism in America. Black students have been failing in a school district not controlled by whites in a city that is not controlled by whites. Yet, we know that white racism must be the culprit since disparate racial outcomes are always evidence of racism, according to Ibrahim X. Kendi.
And, yet, despite the evidence of this egregious racism, the Raceblogs on Media have nothing to say about this problem. They have plenty to say about slavery, which ended nearly 200 years ago, but the lives of black students in Baltimore this week pass without comment.
The facts of the case are reported by Legal Insurrection as follows:
23 Baltimore schools have zero students proficient in math, per state test results
Baltimore City is facing a devastating reality as the latest round of state test scores are released.
Project Baltimore analyzed the results and found a shocking number of Baltimore City schools where not a single student is doing math at grade level.
“We’re not living up to our potential,” said Jovani Patterson, a Baltimore resident who made headlines in January 2022, when he filed a lawsuit against Baltimore City Schools. The suit claims the district is failing to educate students and, in the process, misusing taxpayer funds.
“We, the taxpayer, are funding our own demise,” Patterson said at the time.
Patterson was born in Baltimore. He has seen the failures firsthand. But when Project Baltimore showed him the latest test results for the city, he was momentarily rendered speechless.
“My immediate reaction is, take your kids out of these schools,” said Patterson.
The Maryland State Department of Education recently released the 2022 state test results known as MCAP, Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program.
Baltimore City’s math scores were the lowest in the state. Just 7 percent of third through eighth graders tested proficient in math, which means 93 percent could not do math at grade level.
But that’s not all; Project Baltimore combed through the scores at all 150 City Schools where the state math test was given.
Project Baltimore found, in 23 Baltimore City schools, there were zero students who tested proficient in math. Not a single student.
Is this an example of “systemic racism”? In Baltimore? But the last Republican mayor left office in 1967. It’s been all Democrats since then.
Perhaps racism is found in the school board, but that doesn’t seem plausible since eight of the nine board commissioners are POC.
Poverty is certainly an explanation, but Baltimore is ranked third highest on per-student spending.
If school funding could change educational outcomes, then the students of Baltimore should have better outcomes:
As Annapolis is set to pump more money into Baltimore City Schools, we’re learning the district has moved up in national rankings for spending.
Baltimore City Schools is now the third most-funded school system among the 100 largest in America, according to the U.S. Census for 2019. Last year, when City Schools was ranked fifth in the nation, it spent $15,168 per student. Now, it’s spending $16,184 or nearly $1,000 more per student. That puts Baltimore at number three, behind only New York City and Boston.
According to the 2019 census data, three other Maryland school systems also rank in the top ten for student spending. Baltimore City is followed by Montgomery, Howard and Prince George’s Counties. And these numbers may be going up this coming year. As part of the Kirwan Commission, lawmakers in Annapolis voted to increase public school funding by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Baltimore might have had more educational success if those students had shown up for classes:
Millions of Maryland taxpayer dollars are being spent on educating students who are not in school, according to a local report.
Project Baltimore, FOX45 Baltimore’s investigative reporting team, found that 6,126 students across the state of Maryland were labeled “W50,” which means “whereabouts unknown,” in 2019. By comparison, at a single Baltimore high school called Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts, recorded 40 students whose whereabouts were unknown.
Maryland schools received an average of $15,148 per student in 2019, which adds up to a total of nearly $93 million spent to educate students who weren’t in class across the state and nearly $606,000 at a single Baltimore high school, according to FOX45.
Ghost students,” or students who are enrolled in school and remain on a school’s roster even if they do not show up for class, can increase a school’s funding, the report notes. Students are counted on Sept. 30 each year.
It appears that Baltimore does not have an incentive to educate — it gets paid whether the students show up or not and whether or not the students learn.
This is egregious. It is a disservice to students. It is the bigotry of low expectations.
But where are the Medium Raceblogs on this? Where are their “white allies”? I have not seen a single Medium article discussing this issue or venting at high volume about how institutional racism is hurting black students.
This is a shame. This is where their voices are needed the most. Something very wrong is happening in Baltimore, and it requires a complete reformation.
Update: Jonathan Turley gives more details on the Baltimore story.
But that is a topic for another day.
