Baltimore Schools Get D+ Grade from Voters

With the city's primary less than two months away for the election of the mayor and city council, Democratic voters give the schools an average grade of D+ and rank the poor quality of schools as second only to crime as teh city's biggest problem. The Baltimore Sun reports on its poll of Democratic voters (by far the majority in the city):

Asked to grade the city schools, respondents gave the system an average mark of D-plus. Forty-two percent selected grades of D or Fail.

Forty-nine percent of poll respondents ranked schools as the largest or second-largest challenge facing the city. That compares with 86 percent for crime and 15 percent for the issue in third place, the economy and availability of jobs.

snip

Asked to grade the Baltimore public schools, 2 percent of respondents gave the system an A; 10 percent gave it a B; 32 percent chose C; 22 percent D; and 20 percent Fail, with 15 percent unsure. If the system were assigned a mean grade-point average based on the poll, it would be a 1.45, the equivalent of about a D-plus.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said the city schools have been getting worse, compared with 15 percent who said they've been getting better and 35 percent who said they've stayed about the same. Twelve percent said they did not know.

Of of the leading candidates in the mayoral race, City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell (D) has proposal mayoral control of the schools.

However, unlike New York, Los Angeles or Washington, DC, Baltimroe has a history of mayoral control of the schools and that history is not pretty.

The city schools were controlled by the mayor until a decade ago, when partial control was ceded to the state in exchange for increased funding. Now, the mayor and the governor jointly appoint the school board that oversees the system. Critics, including Mitchell, say that structure has left neither side accountable.

Twenty percent of poll respondents said they liked the current structure, while 19 percent believe that the state should take over the city schools. Twenty percent weren't sure.

Dixon has indicated that she believes returning the city schools to the mayor's control might be the right move in time, as long as the state's financial contribution to the system would not be jeopardized.

Overall, the Baltimore schools have been shoddily run, political footballs for a variety of people. Newly installed Superintendent Andres Alonso was smart and savvy enough to recognize the political meddling and had a clause inserted into his contract designed to free him of day to day meddling, although he cannot insulate himself from the politics of education in Charm City.