I’m as stunned as you’re however we’ll get to the explanations in a second. In case you’re an everyday reader then you realize I’ve written many instances concerning the horrible situations in Baltimore Metropolis faculties. This can be a college system dubbed a “failure manufacturing facility” by the native Fox Information affiliate. It’s a system the place some college students graduate highschool with out ever studying to learn. It’s a system the place 41% of highschool college students have a GPA decrease than 1.0. And it’s a system that has been credibly accused of participating in fraud by placing “ghost college students” on the books as a approach to bump up the amount of cash these faculties obtain.
In brief, Baltimore faculties have among the highest funding of any public faculties within the nation and ship among the very worst outcomes. So again in January a married couple, Jovani and Shawnda Patterson, with ties to the Republican celebration filed a lawsuit in opposition to town and the college system:
A former Republican candidate for Metropolis Council president and a former metropolis college trainer have filed a lawsuit in opposition to Baltimore Metropolis and its public college system for what they describe as a sweeping failure to offer an sufficient public schooling, losing public funds and defrauding taxpayers within the course of.
Jovani and Shawnda Patterson, who reside in Baltimore’s Mount Holly neighborhood, filed the go well with Wednesday in Baltimore Metropolis Circuit Courtroom alleging that metropolis residents acquired “no profit” from a college system that “fully fails to carry out its most necessary perform” of teaching kids.
The couple say they’ve one little one, who is just not named within the go well with, enrolled within the metropolis college system…
“Merely put, the Faculty System is failing to show its college students primary abilities annually, then giving up and advancing them with out equipping them with the information wanted to succeed on the subsequent grade degree,” the criticism states.
Based mostly on the hyperlinks above, I’m unsure how that is even debatable. Baltimore faculties are a catastrophe for any little one unlucky sufficient to reside there and it has been that method for a very long time.
And that brings me again to the stunning factor which lawyer Benjamin Crump did. Crump is an lawyer greatest identified for representing households in numerous police circumstances linked to Black Lives Matter together with households of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and George Floyd amongst others. Final week, Crump determined to hitch the lawsuit in opposition to Baltimore’s faculties.
“This lawsuit is concerning the system and its efficiency and the way it continues to fail our kids,” Crump mentioned at a information convention Wednesday. “It goes to the crux of the matter that academic injustice leads finally to racial injustice as a result of it places our kids our Black and brown kids particularly on a quick monitor to the school-to-prison pipeline.”
The Pattersons, who’ve a baby within the metropolis college system, began off with illustration from Marder, who’s with Baltimore-based Thomas & Libowitz legislation agency. Jovani Patterson has Republican Celebration ties and misplaced a bid for Baltimore Metropolis Council president in 2020. Shawnda Patterson was a Baltimore Metropolis trainer…
Crump mentioned he was requested a 12 months in the past to hitch the case, and as he realized extra, he determined he needed to participate…
“I feel you may kill folks in some ways,” Crump mentioned. “You’ll be able to kill them with a racist felony justice system. You’ll be able to kill them by them not having sufficient schooling. These gradual deaths are what we’re targeted on at the moment.”
So, sure, it’s lastly occurred. I agree fully with Ben Crump and I hope he helps the Patterson’s win this case. Crump gave an interview to Fox45, the native station that has uncovered among the terrible situations in Baltimore’s faculties, explaining why he jumped on board.
“The system is damaged and we have to attempt to repair it,” Crump mentioned. He’s proper. The one hope for Baltimore’s faculties, in my opinion, is to have somebody outdoors town maintain them accountable. That is in all probability the easiest way that would occur.
