In a recent interview, Black theoretical physicist Sylvester James Gates was asked why Black students don’t do as well on standardized tests. Gates stated that test scores measure the intrinsic capacity for students to excel, but test scores also measure the investment a society has made in those students.
Then Gates told the story of when he realized the differences in investment.
Gates attended a segregated high school in Florida in the 1960s. When his Black chess club competed against neighboring White schools, Gates realized the White schools had better facilities and the latest equipment to assist student achievement. Gates saw that his state invested more in developing White students than Black students.
It’s understandable why that tale of segregation stuck with Gates, but in the 21st century, is Gates’ answer still valid?
In recent years, only a handful of Black students were able to pass entrance exams to New York City’s elite specialized schools, but New York has the highest per-pupil spending of all 50 states. On the flip side, a WalletHub study ranked Utah schools as 13th in the nation, with high marks for educational quality, campus safety, and SAT scores, but Utah is last in the nation as far as per-pupil spending.
That shows the problem isn’t necessarily money; it’s how the money is used.
In 2022, Jovoni and Shawana Patterson filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore City School Board of Commissioners, the Baltimore City Council, and Mayor Brandon Scott. The plaintiffs accused Baltimore City Public Schools of spending billions of dollars in taxpayer money while failing to properly educate Baltimore City’s children. The lawsuit stated that in 2020-21 Baltimore City Public Schools spent 25.2 percent above the national average, while its students are performing worse than most school districts in the nation.
That school year can be excused as an anomaly due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
However, the lawsuit points out that the school system was failing its students before the pandemic. The results of 2019’s statewide test revealed that only 19.7 percent of Baltimore City Public School students in grades 3 through 10 were proficient in English and only 14.1 percent in math.
These were the lowest numbers since 2015.
Since low scores on statewide tests are linked to students dropping out of high school, the lawsuit focused on the fact that Baltimore City Schools’ graduation rates “show that students can never catch up when the school system fails them early on.” It is sad to say that out of the Baltimore City School students who graduate and go on to a public university in Maryland, 70 percent must take remedial reading and math classes.
The plaintiffs also said that the waste of taxpayer money in Baltimore City Public Schools doesn’t end with spending hundreds of millions of dollars without teaching students. The school system has acknowledged a history of committing fraud by misrepresenting enrollment data, which is directly linked to the amount of funding it receives for its annual budget. “In 2014, the school system overreported its enrollment data by 978 students and was required to return $2.9 million in funding from Baltimore City. Only two years later, the school system misreported its enrollment data again, this time inflating its enrollment by 1,900 students. In that case, the school system’s failure to accurately report enrollment data forced the school system to return $25 million in city funds.”
The plaintiffs added, “Without a proper education, as adults, many of these children cannot find jobs that are both personally rewarding and adequate to support themselves and their families. As such, all too often, as adults, these children require public assistance, and many become involved in the criminal justice system, creating additional burdens for taxpayers in Maryland and Baltimore City.”
Has there been any improvement since the lawsuit was filed?
In February 2023, the Maryland State Department of Education released the results of the previous year’s statewide test, and no student across 23 Baltimore City Public Schools was proficient in math.
Parents with children in these 23 schools want to know how other counties in Maryland have thriving school systems, but Baltimore City Public Schools systemically fail their students year after year.
Now, if the renowned theoretical physicist Sylvester James Gates told these parents their school system was failing due to a lack of investment, these parents would accuse Gates of making excuses for a culture of corruption.
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