Even middle class families in Baltimore try to avoid the public schools, according to Baltimore native and commentator Dan Diamond. But here’s how he put it in a recent radio hit on WTOP: “Many public schools in Baltimore are so underfunded that families with any money — they try and send their kids to private school.”
Comedian and commentator Jon Stewart made a similar claim on his cable show last week: “If we are spending a trillion dollars to rebuild Afghanistan’s schools, we can’t, you know, put a little taste Baltimore’s way. It’s crazy.” Stewart got cheers, laughter and a big round of applause at that line. Clinton administration alumnus and news anchor George Stephanopoulos said “every single politician” makes a similar promise, “but it doesn’t happen.”
But here’s the thing: It does happen.
Our federal and state governments give lots and lots of money to Baltimore schools, as Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution shows us. Baltimore schools spend 27 percent more per student than Fairfax Co., Va., spends, according to Tabarrok — that’s more than $17,000 per student.
The problem with these schools isn’t that they are “underfunded.” It’s that they are broken in a million way — ways that you couldn’t solve even by doubling the per-student spending.
