Local news in Baltimore reported twice in the same day about Baltimore City schools and their failing students. In one school, a student with a 0.13 GPA was ranked 62 out of 120 students, meaning that 58 students in his grade scored even lower. Can you believe all those failing students? In Baltimore, if a student drops out or leaves the school to get help, the $17,000 per kid that the school receives disappears. The local media was fast to point out funding as an incentive for Baltimore City Schools to keep students moving through the system.
The second story about a different Baltimore school had similar themes: failing students and administrators that care more about funding than offering quality education. Samuel Harkless is his niece’s guardian, and he knows she is chronically late and skips school frequently, but he does not feel like he has any support from the school system to help keep her in school. After failing class after class and skipping school, no one is helping him hold her accountable. Harkless says the system just keeps promoting her to the next grade whether she has learned anything or not.
“I said ‘she shouldn’t’ be promoted’,” Harkless said. “And the principal said ‘well, the system basically said she had enough credits, so we just aren’t going to fight it.” Harkless also said his niece is sometimes passing classes she’s not even attending, “She doesn’t go. So how is she passing? This ought to be illegal. She’s just being passed through the system.”
Too often school system administrators blame poor children’s academic failures on their home lives and on parents who supposedly don’t really care about education. In Baltimore, the deep irony behind the frustrations of these parents and guardians is that they are deeply invested in their children’s futures and learning environment. It is heartbreaking to hear how powerless they feel. Even more frustrating is Baltimore City School System’s lack of response for the numerous failing students moving through the system.
Education should not feel like a dead end for children, and these stories are another reminder of how important it is for families to be able to freely choose the environment and future opportunities of their children. No one should just be passed through a system.