114 people have been murdered in Baltimore City in the first half of 2009. That computes to a murder about every two out of three days in the city, but here’s the sadly predictable breakdown.
80 black males
10 black females
9 white males
5 Hispanic males
1 Asian male
9 “unknown” males – most almost certainly black
70% of homicides where the identity’s ethnicity is confirmed are black males.
Only 34% of Baltimore City students graduate from high school, fourth worst among big cities in America. The disparity between the city and the suburbs is the widest margin in the nation. 90% of Baltimore City’s students are black.
If the failure of Baltimore City schools to do its job is enough to make a person cry, “MURDER,” the data suggests that perception is absolutely accurate.
While the state and federal government pump more money into Baltimore City’s failing schools moving them up to second to Montgomery County in per pupil expenditures, that investment is not translating into REAL results regardless of what charts and graphs show some improvement on certain test scores. Where’s the money going? We’ve seen plenty of scandals in the last decade where money goes to the wrong places, gets gobbled up by corruption, or just seems to disappear.
Until the schools stop blaming everything and everyone but themselves, and start working toward accepting the challenges of educating students with the backgrounds their population has, Baltimore City schools will continue to be the incubator for the culture that leads to the murder of young black men who lacking any kind of meaningful education have so few positive options in life. Failure to adequately motivate and supervise students providing every student with the clear expectation of success yields chaos. Gangs create their own internal sense of order to deadly results.
Until each one of the murder victims, failing students, and dropouts are seen as real human beings and not simple statistics, until the entire community of all socio-economic backgrounds demands an end to this misery, the body count will continue. The odds are better than not, another young black male will be murdered tonight.
Were he your kid, you might understand. It’s always someone else’s problem.
80 black males
10 black females
9 white males
5 Hispanic males
1 Asian male
9 “unknown” males – most almost certainly black
70% of homicides where the identity’s ethnicity is confirmed are black males.
Only 34% of Baltimore City students graduate from high school, fourth worst among big cities in America. The disparity between the city and the suburbs is the widest margin in the nation. 90% of Baltimore City’s students are black.
If the failure of Baltimore City schools to do its job is enough to make a person cry, “MURDER,” the data suggests that perception is absolutely accurate.
While the state and federal government pump more money into Baltimore City’s failing schools moving them up to second to Montgomery County in per pupil expenditures, that investment is not translating into REAL results regardless of what charts and graphs show some improvement on certain test scores. Where’s the money going? We’ve seen plenty of scandals in the last decade where money goes to the wrong places, gets gobbled up by corruption, or just seems to disappear.
Until the schools stop blaming everything and everyone but themselves, and start working toward accepting the challenges of educating students with the backgrounds their population has, Baltimore City schools will continue to be the incubator for the culture that leads to the murder of young black men who lacking any kind of meaningful education have so few positive options in life. Failure to adequately motivate and supervise students providing every student with the clear expectation of success yields chaos. Gangs create their own internal sense of order to deadly results.
Until each one of the murder victims, failing students, and dropouts are seen as real human beings and not simple statistics, until the entire community of all socio-economic backgrounds demands an end to this misery, the body count will continue. The odds are better than not, another young black male will be murdered tonight.
Were he your kid, you might understand. It’s always someone else’s problem.
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