Yesterday David wrote about the latest scandal at Baltimore City Schools. A local Fox affiliate analyzed state test scores and found 23 schools where not a single student was considered proficient in math. Those schools were the worst but none of the schools performed well with just 7% of 3-8th graders doing math at a level appropriate for their age.

This is a scandal of massive proportions. Baltimore City is spending more than $300 million a year on schools that are absolutely failing students and parents. And that’s just the 20% of the total $1.6 billion being spent on these failing schools.

It’s not like these results come as a complete shock to anyone. Last year an Inspector General’s report found that they city had more than 900 “ghost students” on the rolls at a cost of about $10 million. These are students who were enrolled in classes (by someone) but who never attended a single class. The IG report followed a series of news reports in 2021, starting with this one about a 17-year-old high school student who only passed three classes in three years but kept being passed along from grade to grade. Even more stunning, his overall GPA of 0.13 placed him in the upper half of grades in his high school. It’s a level of failure that ought to lead to people being fired en masse but that hasn’t happened.

Getting back to the latest report on math scores, you would think that news this bad would cause local officials to sit up and take notice. Fox 45 tracked down several members of the city council including Mark Conway who responded like an adult and said he agreed there should be an oversight hearing to look into the problem.

But several other members were either angry or silent about the report when questioned despite the fact that all of them had been emailed with questions about it in advance. Councilmember Ryan Dorsey refused to talk to Fox 45 or any Sinclair owned news outlet. Asked to explain why, he wouldn’t do that either. But I think we all know why. It’s not the schools he and his fellow Democrats oversee that are the problem it’s the one Fox outlet asking difficult questions.

Delegate Stephanie Smith, chair of the house education subcommittee, ignored the questions about the schools as she entered the chamber. I guess it’s not her problem?

The reporter also tried to question Delegate Sandy Rosenberg who refused to answer questions but did stop to blame Fox 45 for never doing a “story about something succeeding in the schools.” Just another Democrat in high dudgeon over being asked to explain Baltimore’s failing, fraudulent schools. Asked who should be held accountable for the test results he snapped, “You’re boss! You’re bosses for the distorted coverage you provide.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is MIA on this issue so far. Fox 45 showed up at a public event he was scheduled to attend and he was absent, called away at the last minute on some unknown emergency.

As for the person in charge of Baltimore City Schools, Dr. Sonja Santelises was profiled by the Baltimore Sun last Sunday for a story titled “25 Black Marylanders to Watch for 2023.” Fox 45 reports she’s earning $445,000 a year as CEO of these schools but so far she hasn’t said anything about this report on math scores.

This is a scandal, arguably one of the biggest in the country given the dire impact it has on more than 75 thousand children and the absolute failure of accountability. But big numbers often don’t have the same impact as looking one person in the eye. Fox 45 sat down with Michelle Watkins, a mother whose young son attends one of the Baltimore City schools that had zero kids proficient in math. She’s in tears describing the sense that her son, now in 4th grade and still unable to read, is facing either death or prison in the future thanks in part to the failure of the city’s schools. “They go there to get babysit for eight hours and come home,” she said of her son’s school. She added, “I feel like they don’t care. It’s not they’re children. They don’t care.” I honestly don’t know how city leaders can look at this mom and her son and sleep at night.