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Our Public Schools In Crisis
On
the beautiful afternoon of Sunday, April 17th, a group of interested
parishioners and neighbors met in the parish hall to discuss the current
state of public education in Baltimore. We were joined by four invited guests:
Jay Gillen, Mathematics teacher at Stadium School; Alan Rebar, English as a
Second Language teacher at Highlandtown Elementary; Sue Fothergill from the
American Civil Liberties Union, and Shanae Peoples, City College sophomore and education
activist with the Baltimore Algebra Project. All four guests are members
of the Baltimore Education Advocates, a coalition of organizations fighting
for equitable public education funding.
Our
guests shared their personal experiences of day-to-day life in our public
schools and their activities in pursuit of improved funding and
accountability. Shanae shared one particularly startling revelation with
the group; City College, the jewel in the crown Baltimore City's public
schools, has no library. That's right, no library! Alan Rebar told
stories about swelling class sizes, elimination of custodial staff, and
teacher intimidation; not to mention the sewage spilling out of broken
pipes and onto the desk of the Principal at Highlandtown Elementary.
These
conditions make successful teaching and learning nearly impossible.
The state of Maryland has been ordered by the courts to provide the resources
to start addressing the inadequacies; nevertheless, the money sits untouched
in state's "rainy day fund." According to our guests,
it is raining right now! In a series of protests, rallies, and
campaigns, they have asked, begged, and demanded action from our city and
state leaders, and they won't stop until they get results.
The
Church of the Messiah will continue to stay in touch with the Baltimore
Education Advocates and offer support and assistance in their fight for
the resources that our schools need to start educating our city's
children properly. As Christians, we are duty-bound to shine light on
injustice. It is clear to anyone who takes the time to look that our
public school students are not being treated justly. We
owe our them our support.
Baltimore Education Advocates (BEA) is a newly-formed coalition of dedicated educators, parents, activists, and interested city residents that meet weekly in support of the efforts of The Algebra Project ( http://www.algebra.org/Baltimore.html and http://www.algebra.org/apinfo/welcome2.html). If you're interested in BEA's efforts or would like to join in the discussion and be notified of meeting times, etc., BEA has a listserv through Yahoo! Groups. To join, click on the link below.  Click to join Baltimore_Education_Advocates |
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