Dig this.
A Project Baltimore investigation has found five Baltimore City high schools and one middle school do not have a single student proficient in the state tested subjects of math and English...Now dig this.
Navon Warren grew up in West Baltimore. He was three months old when his father was shot to death. Before his 18th birthday, he would lose two uncles and a classmate, all gunned down on the streets of Baltimore...
High school students are tested by the state in math and English. Their scores place them in one of five categories – a four or five is considered proficient and one through three are not. At Frederick Douglass (where Navon goes to school), 185 students took the state math test last year and 89 percent fell into the lowest level. Just one student approached expectations and scored a three.
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| The demographic dot map of Baltimore with Navon's high school marked. I left it very large, so it's worth a click. |
Now dig this.
Current Members of the Baltimore City Council
| District | Locale | Member | Party | Elected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southeast | Zeke Cohen | Democratic | 2016 |
| 2 | Belair Parkside | Brandon M. Scott | Democratic | 2011 |
| 3 | Hamilton | Ryan Dorsey | Democratic | 2016 |
| 4 | North | Bill Henry | Democratic | 2007 |
| 5 | Northwest | Isaac "YItzy" Schleifer | Democratic | 2016 |
| 6 | Park Heights, Roland Park | Sharon Green Middleton | Democratic | 2007 |
| 7 | Mondawmin | Leon F. Pinkett III | Democratic | 2016 |
| 8 | Edmondson Village, Forest Park | Kristerfer Burnett | Democratic | 2016 |
| 9 | West | John Bullock | Democratic | 2016 |
| 10 | Southwest | Edward Reisinger | Democratic | 1995 |
| 11 | Downtown | Eric Costello | Democratic | 2014 |
| 12 | Greenmount, Jonestown | Robert Stokes Sr. | Democratic | 2016 |
| 13 | East | Shannon Sneed | Democratic | 2016 |
| 14 | Charles Village | Mary Pat Clarke | Democratic | 1975 |
| At-Large | Baltimore City | Bernard "Jack" Young | Democratic | 2010 |
Simple Analysis
Navon's classmates are essentially illiterate and unemployable. They're growing up in a war zone. I didn't look it up, but illegitimacy rates must be near 80% in their neighborhoods. For all intents and purposes, there are no whites, asians or hispanics around them. The entire government is made up of Democrats and has been for decades.
The problem cannot be political because there is only one side present.
The problem cannot be racial because there is only one race present.
Go ahead and argue politics and racism all you want. Go ahead and tear down Confederate war memorials and burn the Dixie flag. Go ahead and scream about white supremacists on campus. Talk about economic opportunity zones and tax cuts and over-regulation until you're blue in the face. Wear your Make American Great Again hat until it's glued to your head. Talk about LGBT rights morning, noon and night. March and protest about
Here's an entire generation who are not capable of making use of anything but the most basic handouts because they lack the core skills of literacy and mathematics.
Why?
Without intact, traditional families and the stability and social structure they create, these kids are utterly screwed.
By the way, good luck getting these guys to help out with the $20B Federal debt we've accumulated.
Update: It's not funding, either. The Baltimore School District spends 50% above the national average per student.
From the article you linked:
ReplyDelete"In the fall, he will leave the streets of Baltimore and head to Bethany College in West Virginia, where he will swim. “It’s exciting for him to get out of the city and exciting for him to start a new chapter in his life,” says Nelson."
I think this is a key point about why things are the way they are in that part of Baltimore (and places like it): People who can get out, do so as soon as possible. Anyone with money and/or ability flees the area as soon as they can manage it, leaving behind only those who have neither money or ability. And a community of people with no money to invest in starting businesses, and no skills to operate businesses even if they had money to start them, is hardly going to be an economic or social success story.
Tim, bingo. Here's the other thing I thought along those lines. He was almost the only one to get out. 89% of his peers scored a 1 on the proficiency exam. I haven't seen the exam, but if it's anything like the one my daughter struggled with (for different reasons), if you can breathe, identify basic letters and shapes and count your toes, you can score a 2.
ReplyDeleteWhat if you love those poor souls who score a 1? Love them as God's children, as God's image? Elect Trump, does that cure it? Vote for Hillary and pour more mountains of money into their schools, assuming most of it doesn't get sluiced off before then? This is Yankee country, do you erect statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Robert E. Lee so you can tear them down in high dudgeon?
It's a horror show and it doesn't stop because these kids don't go away after they "graduate." And yet, we marinate in Russian conspiracy theories and such like.