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‘While the national poverty rate has dropped from 14.8% to 12.3% since 2014, Baltimore’s remains virtually unchanged at 22.4%. Children are trapped in failing schools that can’t teach them to read or do math at grade level. No wonder Sen. Bernie Sanders once compared Baltimore to “a Third World country” and said it is “a community in which half of the people don’t have jobs [and] in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable.” This is happening in Maryland, the richest state in the country. Talk about income inequality.’

That’s what’s staggering to UD – that Baltimore is happening in the richest state in the country.

Longtime readers may recall that UD – a native of the city, born in Johns Hopkins Hospital – was in Baltimore the day after the Freddie Gray riots. Her account of her time there is here. Here. And here.

Margaret Soltan, August 1, 2019 3:33PM
Posted in: snapshots from home

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4 Responses to “‘While the national poverty rate has dropped from 14.8% to 12.3% since 2014, Baltimore’s remains virtually unchanged at 22.4%. Children are trapped in failing schools that can’t teach them to read or do math at grade level. No wonder Sen. Bernie Sanders once compared Baltimore to “a Third World country” and said it is “a community in which half of the people don’t have jobs [and] in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable.” This is happening in Maryland, the richest state in the country. Talk about income inequality.’”

  1. David Foster Says:

    “Richest state in the country”

    Yet the state of Maryland doesn’t appear to be skimping on spending in Baltimore. See for example this data on school spending, per-student:

    https://conduitstreet.mdcounties.org/2018/02/21/chart-compares-school-funding-per-student-county-by-county/

    Note Baltimore City total funding per-student = $17211, of which $12104 is from the state.

    Compare with Montgomery County per-student = $16499, of which $5360 is from the state.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    David: And the city gets a lot of federal money. Which means… profound corruption? (Everyone who gets hold of it steals the money.) Such broad and deep drug addiction/hopelessness that no amount of money can make any difference?

  3. David Foster Says:

    Corruption is part of it. The crippling of much American manufacturing….Baltimore was once a pretty significant industrial center…was another part. And the increasing difficulty of enforcing any kind of behavioral standards in public schools is surely yet another part. Doesn’t matter how much you spend on schools if a few troublemakers can ruin any class.

    btw, on the off chance you haven’t already seen it, the TC series “The Wire” (set in Baltimore) is excellent.

  4. theprofessor Says:

    Because of extra local and federal money, our inner-city public schools spend about 130% more on each student than the other publics in the rest of the county, and about 300% more than the local Catholic schools. Throw in free clothing, shoes, and school supplies funded by private donors. The results? Not really different from Baltimore. The problem according to the superintendent is under-funding. Such under-funding, however, did not hamper the construction of two new football stadiums and expensive renovations of two others, along with countless gym projects. Nor did lack of money impede the purchase and renovation of a swanky new administrative building to replace the merely luxurious old one.

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