Education Report: The More Things Change, the More
They Remain the Same
Tue., Dec. 26, 2006 /Baltimore news
by Ron Kipling Williams
At the Baltimore Leadership Alliance for Quality Education (BLAQE) conference held at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) on October 14th, educators, parents, and concerned citizens gathered together to discuss how to improve the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS). Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) organized the conference, and he and Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr., served as hosts. It included educators and administrators who have achieved success in the school system. One was Jason Botel of the KIPP Academy (Ujima Village), who invited everyone to come to his school and see the outstanding progress it has made with its students. A Johns Hopkins University health official, as well as the CEO and President of the Philadelphia School system, also participated. [KIPP Ujima Village is a branch of the national Knowledge Is Power Program; together with the Crossroads School, it was established as part of the Baltimore New Schools Initiative in 2002.eds]
Two separate panels had discussions, each of which was followed by a question-and-answer period that outlined problems and solutions, or failures and strategies for success. Both panel discussions were interspersed with humor and words of wisdom. There was an intermission between them, followed by a screening of clips from HBO’s fourth season of “The Wire,” which focused on the BCPSS.
Some participants questioned Cummings about his role in exposing the crisis in the BCPSS, a system that many say has been in a downward spiral for the last twenty-five years. “It’s not about the business of airing dirty laundry. It’s about the business of lifting up our children who need urgent action,” Cummings replied.
Although the education issue has dwarfed crime as the most contentious issue in Baltimore City politics, many audience members were dismayed at the lack of political support. Those who did appear made their rounds, smiling and pressing palms before being whisked to their next election year gig. There was hardly an official face in the audience at the second panel discussion, which consisted mainly of community leaders and parent advocates. One prominent City Council member was present for less than fifteen minutes. This, many believe, indicates how officials deal with the children in the public school system. “They don’t care whether our children are standing upside-down or right-side-up,” remarked Grandmother Edna, longtime advocate, activist and after-school program founder, who was present at the conference. “I do not like it when our children are used as a pawn for a political agenda, and it was just like the Oscar red carpet effect for a political agenda,” she added.
Education and Elections
Nowhere was that political agenda more prevalent than in the October 14th televised gubernatorial debates between Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. and Mayor Martin O’Malley. The two candidates clashed over several issues, demonstrating their mutual disdain. On the topic of education, O’Malley used statistics to defend his record of success, attacked Ehrlich’s management and inaction on his pledged commitment to education during his administration, and blasted him for withholding $1.08 billion of court-ordered funding that the State of Maryland owes BCPSS. Ehrlich defended his own record, and also used statistics to point out O’Malley’s failures, reiterating that he would not fund failing schools.
Aside from the fact that it sounded like politics as usual, the real tragedy of these debates was the failure to recognize that the suffering of the BCPSS is non-partisan.
The State’s Debt to the Schools
Equity amongst school districts has historically been contentious. The Maryland Supreme Courts decision in Hornbeck v. Somerset County Board of Education was that Maryland’s constitution did not obligate all school districts in the state to spend equally per pupil. At the same time and in equal measure, the court’s ruling upheld the Maryland constitutional education clause assuring the right to “an adequate education measured by contemporary educational standards.”
With this in mind, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Baltimore City took the state to court in 1994 on grounds that its students were being inadequately educated. A summary judgment was rendered in their favor in Bradford v. Maryland State Board of Education, where Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan not only ordered the State of Maryland to compose a plan to resolve its budget deficit, but also to pay $50 million a year to the BCPSS until it was adequately funded.
However, not even a court order can force a state to pay. In 2000, the plaintiffs returned, demonstrating that the State of Maryland was still under-funding the city’s public schools. Kaplan ruled that Maryland had to provide “additional funding of approximately $2,000 to $2,600 per pupil” in 2001 and 2002, totaling $260 million. In June 2001, Governor Parris Glendening (D-MD) and the Maryland State Legislature designed the Thornton Commission, which was to implement a six-year plan to fund the much-deprived school districts and to increase achievement standards in Baltimore City. A year later Glendening signed the Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act that was slated to increase statewide education funding by $1.1 billion over five years. The ACLU touted this plan. But do more plans equal more political smokescreens? In 2004, Judge Kaplan found that the State of Maryland still owed the BCPSS $2,000 to $6,000 per student per year, totaling $439 to $839 million since 2001.
A Movement to Fix the Problem
Since 2004, numerous organizations have taken the State of Maryland to court, yet no additional funds have been awarded. Many hope this will change in January 2007 when Governor-Elect O’Malley takes office. However, there are those who are not holding their breath. “O’Malley doesn’t care about us, so we don’t care about him,” declares Ryan Mason, student activist and member of the regional Black Power group Solvivaz Nation and the Baltimore Algebra Project. The juxtaposition of the ever-expansive waterfront development and tourist attractions to the shrinking of affordable housing, increased juvenile detentions, closing of recreation centers, and a failing school system demonstrates to many residents in a predominantly African American city that they are not given a political priority.
The Algebra Project is one of the youth
organizations that have been vociferously petitioning
for the state to comply with its court order. They
have been very public in the last two years,
organizing protests in front of the office of the
State Superintendent of Schools, Nancy Grasmick,
which included an attempted citizens’ arrest
during one of her Board of Education meetings. On the
afternoon of October 14th, just one hour after the
BLAQE Conference came to a close at MICA, the Algebra
Project led students and advocates in a march past
the Baltimore City School Board to the Seventh
Baptist Church where they convened the Maryland
Freedom Board of Education (MFBE), invoking Article
Six of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, and
declared themselves a legitimate body designed to be
an alternative to the current State Board of
Education.
The MFBE was modeled after the historic Freedom Summer of 1964 where legendary civil rights organizer Fanny Lou Hamer organized the Mississippi Freedom Party after being shut out of the Democratic Convention. In the following election cycle, they were included, a turning point in the struggle for voting rights for blacks. The MFBE looks for a similar turning point—namely, to be recognized by the Baltimore City Council as a legitimate body—as they continue the fight to wrest the $1.08 billion in court-ordered funds from the grip of the State of Maryland.
Privatization of Schools
What is equally puzzling is the growth of charter schools in Baltimore City. Two years ago, the Maryland General Assembly legalized charter schools at the behest of Ehrlich. This year, the Maryland State Board of Education ruled that school systems must provide as much cash money per student to charter operators as they do in standard public schools. In effect, the Board and the State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick rubber-stamped the privatization of schools. This decision severely affects the BCPSS, which under the new ruling receives $7,500 per student, as opposed to $11,000 per student in a charter school. Worse still is evidence that charter schools fail, according to the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress, published by the U.S. Department of Education. The Department of Education came out with a similar report the following year. This could be seen as even more injurious, considering that the BCPSS for years has suffered with building neglect, understaffed security, outdated textbooks and a scarcity of school supplies
Adding insult to injury is the State Board of Education’s outrageous policy of requiring many teachers to conduct a yearly High School Assessment (HSA) Test. Last year, the State pass information to the City stating that students need not be worried about the HAS test, and that it would not count against them. Trust the State, the City forwarded the information to its students, and what resulted was disastrous. Many students failed the tests because they didn’t take them, or merely wrote their names on the exams and left. As a result, seven schools were placed on the State of Maryland’s list of schools to take over. The City greeted the State’s deception with indignation. The General Assembly granted the City one year to turn the schools around. There are those who wonder how BCPSS can succeed in 12 months in what they have failed to do for 12 years.
Perhaps it was in this context that Governor Ehrlich felt justified in making the public remark that some Baltimore City students were unable to read their diploma. Perhaps it is a horrible tragedy, a statistical phenomenon that plagues urban schools nationwide. But young people like Chantél Clea, Chair of the Baltimore Youth Commission feel that remarks like Ehrlich’s are inappropriate and counterproductive to improvement efforts. “They are supposed to be our leaders. They’re not setting a good example,” remarked Clea. Furthermore, many feel the remarks only serve a political agenda. Clea expands, “A lot of the issues around Baltimore City didn’t just happen. It’s been going on for a while. These young people are aware that [the politicians] wait until the proper time so it’s fresh in people’s minds, so it’s the first thing they think about when they go to the polls. But if you really want to affect young people, don’t wait until the last minute when it’s convenient for you. Work with us all year long.”
What is the ultimate tragedy in this current climate, where education is a pawn on a political chessboard, where ineptitude reigns supreme in local government, where mainstream media are rendered impotent by political pressure not to air dirty laundry, and where suffering is imposed on the most abused and neglected constituency? The children.
This article originally appeared in the Indypendent Reader (Winter 2006-7) a quarterly newspaper published jointly by Baltimore Independent Media Center and CampBaltimore.
At the Baltimore Leadership Alliance for Quality Education (BLAQE) conference held at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) on October 14th, educators, parents, and concerned citizens gathered together to discuss how to improve the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS). Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) organized the conference, and he and Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr., served as hosts. It included educators and administrators who have achieved success in the school system. One was Jason Botel of the KIPP Academy (Ujima Village), who invited everyone to come to his school and see the outstanding progress it has made with its students. A Johns Hopkins University health official, as well as the CEO and President of the Philadelphia School system, also participated. [KIPP Ujima Village is a branch of the national Knowledge Is Power Program; together with the Crossroads School, it was established as part of the Baltimore New Schools Initiative in 2002.eds]
Two separate panels had discussions, each of which was followed by a question-and-answer period that outlined problems and solutions, or failures and strategies for success. Both panel discussions were interspersed with humor and words of wisdom. There was an intermission between them, followed by a screening of clips from HBO’s fourth season of “The Wire,” which focused on the BCPSS.
Some participants questioned Cummings about his role in exposing the crisis in the BCPSS, a system that many say has been in a downward spiral for the last twenty-five years. “It’s not about the business of airing dirty laundry. It’s about the business of lifting up our children who need urgent action,” Cummings replied.
Although the education issue has dwarfed crime as the most contentious issue in Baltimore City politics, many audience members were dismayed at the lack of political support. Those who did appear made their rounds, smiling and pressing palms before being whisked to their next election year gig. There was hardly an official face in the audience at the second panel discussion, which consisted mainly of community leaders and parent advocates. One prominent City Council member was present for less than fifteen minutes. This, many believe, indicates how officials deal with the children in the public school system. “They don’t care whether our children are standing upside-down or right-side-up,” remarked Grandmother Edna, longtime advocate, activist and after-school program founder, who was present at the conference. “I do not like it when our children are used as a pawn for a political agenda, and it was just like the Oscar red carpet effect for a political agenda,” she added.
Education and Elections
Nowhere was that political agenda more prevalent than in the October 14th televised gubernatorial debates between Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. and Mayor Martin O’Malley. The two candidates clashed over several issues, demonstrating their mutual disdain. On the topic of education, O’Malley used statistics to defend his record of success, attacked Ehrlich’s management and inaction on his pledged commitment to education during his administration, and blasted him for withholding $1.08 billion of court-ordered funding that the State of Maryland owes BCPSS. Ehrlich defended his own record, and also used statistics to point out O’Malley’s failures, reiterating that he would not fund failing schools.
Aside from the fact that it sounded like politics as usual, the real tragedy of these debates was the failure to recognize that the suffering of the BCPSS is non-partisan.
The State’s Debt to the Schools
Equity amongst school districts has historically been contentious. The Maryland Supreme Courts decision in Hornbeck v. Somerset County Board of Education was that Maryland’s constitution did not obligate all school districts in the state to spend equally per pupil. At the same time and in equal measure, the court’s ruling upheld the Maryland constitutional education clause assuring the right to “an adequate education measured by contemporary educational standards.”
With this in mind, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Baltimore City took the state to court in 1994 on grounds that its students were being inadequately educated. A summary judgment was rendered in their favor in Bradford v. Maryland State Board of Education, where Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan not only ordered the State of Maryland to compose a plan to resolve its budget deficit, but also to pay $50 million a year to the BCPSS until it was adequately funded.
However, not even a court order can force a state to pay. In 2000, the plaintiffs returned, demonstrating that the State of Maryland was still under-funding the city’s public schools. Kaplan ruled that Maryland had to provide “additional funding of approximately $2,000 to $2,600 per pupil” in 2001 and 2002, totaling $260 million. In June 2001, Governor Parris Glendening (D-MD) and the Maryland State Legislature designed the Thornton Commission, which was to implement a six-year plan to fund the much-deprived school districts and to increase achievement standards in Baltimore City. A year later Glendening signed the Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act that was slated to increase statewide education funding by $1.1 billion over five years. The ACLU touted this plan. But do more plans equal more political smokescreens? In 2004, Judge Kaplan found that the State of Maryland still owed the BCPSS $2,000 to $6,000 per student per year, totaling $439 to $839 million since 2001.
A Movement to Fix the Problem
Since 2004, numerous organizations have taken the State of Maryland to court, yet no additional funds have been awarded. Many hope this will change in January 2007 when Governor-Elect O’Malley takes office. However, there are those who are not holding their breath. “O’Malley doesn’t care about us, so we don’t care about him,” declares Ryan Mason, student activist and member of the regional Black Power group Solvivaz Nation and the Baltimore Algebra Project. The juxtaposition of the ever-expansive waterfront development and tourist attractions to the shrinking of affordable housing, increased juvenile detentions, closing of recreation centers, and a failing school system demonstrates to many residents in a predominantly African American city that they are not given a political priority.
The MFBE was modeled after the historic Freedom Summer of 1964 where legendary civil rights organizer Fanny Lou Hamer organized the Mississippi Freedom Party after being shut out of the Democratic Convention. In the following election cycle, they were included, a turning point in the struggle for voting rights for blacks. The MFBE looks for a similar turning point—namely, to be recognized by the Baltimore City Council as a legitimate body—as they continue the fight to wrest the $1.08 billion in court-ordered funds from the grip of the State of Maryland.
Privatization of Schools
What is equally puzzling is the growth of charter schools in Baltimore City. Two years ago, the Maryland General Assembly legalized charter schools at the behest of Ehrlich. This year, the Maryland State Board of Education ruled that school systems must provide as much cash money per student to charter operators as they do in standard public schools. In effect, the Board and the State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick rubber-stamped the privatization of schools. This decision severely affects the BCPSS, which under the new ruling receives $7,500 per student, as opposed to $11,000 per student in a charter school. Worse still is evidence that charter schools fail, according to the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress, published by the U.S. Department of Education. The Department of Education came out with a similar report the following year. This could be seen as even more injurious, considering that the BCPSS for years has suffered with building neglect, understaffed security, outdated textbooks and a scarcity of school supplies
Adding insult to injury is the State Board of Education’s outrageous policy of requiring many teachers to conduct a yearly High School Assessment (HSA) Test. Last year, the State pass information to the City stating that students need not be worried about the HAS test, and that it would not count against them. Trust the State, the City forwarded the information to its students, and what resulted was disastrous. Many students failed the tests because they didn’t take them, or merely wrote their names on the exams and left. As a result, seven schools were placed on the State of Maryland’s list of schools to take over. The City greeted the State’s deception with indignation. The General Assembly granted the City one year to turn the schools around. There are those who wonder how BCPSS can succeed in 12 months in what they have failed to do for 12 years.
Perhaps it was in this context that Governor Ehrlich felt justified in making the public remark that some Baltimore City students were unable to read their diploma. Perhaps it is a horrible tragedy, a statistical phenomenon that plagues urban schools nationwide. But young people like Chantél Clea, Chair of the Baltimore Youth Commission feel that remarks like Ehrlich’s are inappropriate and counterproductive to improvement efforts. “They are supposed to be our leaders. They’re not setting a good example,” remarked Clea. Furthermore, many feel the remarks only serve a political agenda. Clea expands, “A lot of the issues around Baltimore City didn’t just happen. It’s been going on for a while. These young people are aware that [the politicians] wait until the proper time so it’s fresh in people’s minds, so it’s the first thing they think about when they go to the polls. But if you really want to affect young people, don’t wait until the last minute when it’s convenient for you. Work with us all year long.”
What is the ultimate tragedy in this current climate, where education is a pawn on a political chessboard, where ineptitude reigns supreme in local government, where mainstream media are rendered impotent by political pressure not to air dirty laundry, and where suffering is imposed on the most abused and neglected constituency? The children.
This article originally appeared in the Indypendent Reader (Winter 2006-7) a quarterly newspaper published jointly by Baltimore Independent Media Center and CampBaltimore.