Eleven Baltimore City schools that are failing their students qualify for state oversight under No Child Left Behind. Yet when the state department of education moved to assume control of those schools, Maryland legislators blocked the measure in the General Assembly, leaving the schools to fail for yet another year. Baltimore City schools, in academic danger for years, have reached a serious impasse now, simply because no one can effect an appropriate administrative solution.
What legislators, and outsiders, do not appear to grasp is the severe situation of many Baltimore City children. For example, several generations of the city?s special education students were allowed to miss out on essential services before the state finally assumed control of the system. Those effects of state oversight have yet to be measured and will require at least a couple of years to demonstrate any positive effects on student learning.
With so many students continuing to perform below proficiency in mainstream city classrooms, emergency measures are needed, and now. What has been an inner city problem is now a larger human rights issue, where a defenseless segment of the population continues to exist in what is essentially a Third World situation. Those who continue to look the other way, delay the process of rebuilding city schools and block other opportunities for these children are perpetuating this cycle. Those of us living outside these communities defined by a culture of drugs and violence find it too easy to look the other way. We cannot do that anymore.
Every single business or organization that operates within the city limits has a responsibility to volunteer time and/or money to failing schools. And the state department of education, legislators and the city public school system need to set aside political motives and their own time concerns meet to formulate short- and long-term solutions to this emergency.
Vouchers needed
In the short term, students attending the 11 worst schools should be given vouchers to attend a private or public school elsewhere in the Baltimore area, and the state should pay for student transportation to better schools. Meanwhile, those schools need to close until plans are in place to ensure better instruction.
The city schools problem is obviously complex, with deep social and economic roots. For this reason, no number of outside fix-it attempts will succeed without more long-term involvement from black leaders and educators, who know that community best and serve as the most ideal role models for black children. Baltimore?s failures should be a call for sacrifice from concerned citizens around the country who care about educating children, and especially those who have a stake in the black community.
Businesses and organizations from all corners of America can help make that happen in Baltimore and similar districts. One way is to provide incentives for black college students who demonstrate interest in public school teaching. The Siemens Foundation is awarding $1 million in scholarships over the next four years to encourage minority students to pursue teaching careers in science and math. James Whaley, vice president of the foundation, put it this way: “Leading means taking the harder right versus the easier wrong. It?s easy to write checks. But our involvement is a sacrifice. We are investing time, energy and emotional commitment.” Indeed, organizations with the resources to start programs and raise money can and should take the lead in fomenting better teacher training, which is the foundation for excellent education.
Back in Maryland, there are a number of ways to begin to restructure the educational offerings for city children. Raising the stakes for city teachers should be the first step, to attract talented graduates, particularly from historically black colleges, to come to Baltimore and make a difference. Second, altruism may bring good teachers to Baltimore for a year or two, but a professional level of pay based on merit is more likely to keep them there.
Reform state charter law
Third, legislators should look at ways to reform the state charter law to allow more flexibility and freedom for educators wishing to start an independent school with public funding. The success of the city?s KIPP Ujima Village Academy, a charter school under the nationwide Knowledge is Power Program, is a case in point. The program?s extended school day is probably necessary for the remedial instruction many city children need.
While planting seeds for long-term change, legislators and state and city officials should consider an emergency measure that gets city children an appropriate education, starting in fall 2006. It?s already too late.
Alison Lake is managing editor at the Maryland Public PolicyInstitute, and former public school teacher and Dept. of Ed. Blue Ribbon Schools evaluator. She can be reached at [email protected].
