It's no secret that the facilities and learning environments in Baltimore City Public Schools are outdated and ineffective. Without adequate school buildings, resources, and technology our students will continue to fall behind their peers in other districts. Although inadequate facilities are one part in a multifaceted, deep-rooted issue, the results thereof continue to plague Baltimore City Public Schools and many inhabitants of this city.
Dr. Alonzo’s proposed plan is seeking $1.2 billion to conduct massive renovations, while Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is seeking a meager $300 million to fix the same problems. In her recent State of the City Address she spoke out against the CEO’s plan suggesting that it was both unreasonable and unrealistic, but how realistic is it to believe that without massive and radical change, Baltimore City students will even stand a chance when competing against students from other districts. Thinking back to her re-election campaign just a few months ago, one of the “Solutions for Baltimore” presented as apart of her political platform was Better Schools. Within this, Rawlings-Blake insisted that she was committed to both innovation in education as well as school construction. There is nothing innovative about the decrepit conditions of many city schools or the lack of resources therein.
Politics are a tricky game. While it sounds nice to say all the wonderful things one will and must do in Baltimore to continue to produce “results” in the public education system, the real challenge comes when it is time to take action; proposing $300 million dollars to complete $2.8 billion in needed repairs is laughable. Social theorist Harriet Martineau said it best: in Baltimore City our morals-the things we espouse to be good and right-do not align with our manners-our conduct, actions, and standards for behavior.
The Baltimore Sun Article can be found here
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