OPINION:
How can a city that once served as the U.S. capital and was the backdrop inspiration of our national anthem dissolve into riots (“How to run a great city into the ground,” Web, May 4)? Baltimore boasts the 11th busiest port in the United States and the 22nd busiest airport, and it is home to very successful Major League Baseball and National Football League teams. It has the showcase Inner Harbor with all its trappings to entertain tourists, visitors and residents. I can only imagine that countless U.S. cities would be giddy with these economic attributes. So what’s not to like? I can only point to the failed school system as the root of the problem.
With a paltry graduation rate hovering around 68 percent, the city is failing to ensure its teens have a fighting chance to escape the hopelessness of unemployment and the attraction of crime, petty or otherwise, as a means of income. Most if not all employers expect a minimum of a high school diploma, or GED, for entry-level employment, and nowadays a basic background check is conducted to reveal any criminal record. This is not discriminatory, it is just good business practice.
According to the website Recovery.gov, the city of Baltimore received just over $1.8 billion in funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the president’s stimulus package. Roughly 25 percent of this funding, $467 million, was committed to “education.” I have no idea how Baltimore spent this windfall, but wherever it went, it didn’t work. Call me frugal, but I’m not swayed by the argument that more money will cure these educational ills. Throwing good money after bad is not a prudent policy.
I certainly don’t have answers to these difficult questions, but I will suggest that until such time as Baltimore gets very serious about educating its younger population, the current problems will persist.
RANDALL STEPHENS
Falls Church
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