Not a single student in 40% of Baltimore’s public schools was proficient at math during the 2022-2023 school year, according to state exam results shared by Fox45.
Nearly 2,000 students took the state math test across the 13 schools. Not one passed. Of those who took the exam at any of the 13 schools, nearly 75% of them received the lowest possible score, according to Fox45.
In 13 Baltimore high schools, 0 students are proficient in math. 74.5% scored a 1 out of 4, "meaning those students were not even close to proficient."
In March, I asked in a congressional hearing: what is @rweingarten advising the Baltimore teachers to do? @IWF @GOPoversight https://t.co/x7oPBMW994 pic.twitter.com/RTxKqcmpzQ
— Ginny Gentles (@ginnygentles) September 20, 2023
Despite Baltimore being one of the highest per-pupil spending cities in the U.S., it has one of the lowest passing rates. Fox45 reported that in 2023, taxpayers spent over $21,000 for each student in Baltimore public schools.
In 2020, Baltimore public schools also had the third-highest administrative spending per student, as reported by the Daily Caller. In May 2023, the city’s council approved extra funding for teachers and administrators. Yet, that money seems to have gone to waste, given the low testing scores.
Deputy director of a Baltimore community nonprofit, Jason Rodgriguez, called the situation an “educational homicide.”
The unsatisfactory testing scores come after Democrats in Maryland’s state legislature passed a bill to create a program that would aid in the process of education. The program is described as “a comprehensive overhaul of education” which is “designed to close equity gaps and improve the overall quality of education in the state.”
At the time of the left-leaning bill’s passage, Maryland’s governor was Larry Hogan, a Republican, who attempted to veto the legislation but was later overruled by the state legislature, as reported by The Washington Post.
Parents whose children are attending Baltimore public schools have spoken out against the district’s alleged fraud and corruption. In May 2023, two parents sued the district, alleging that it had misused taxpayer funds, and falsified records to receive more funding while graduating students who had failed.
Baltimore’s public schools are no stranger to failure. In 2021, Fox45 reported that a male student at a Baltimore high school had passed just three classes in four years and achieved a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 0.13 which, believe it or not, ranked him in the middle of his class.
After the student’s case made headlines, an investigation revealed that there had been a massive scheme to inflate his grades at the high school.
