Comment by cmrivers | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cmrivers | Hacker News Reader

I live in Baltimore City and have to agree that it's troubled. Another thing that makes it difficult for the city to thrive is the abysmal schools. Middle schools and high schools are not assigned by neighborhood, but instead by a match system. In theory this offers opportunities for children in low-income neighborhoods that would otherwise have a too-small tax base for their local schools. In practice, it means nearly all city schools are horrible. "One-third of Baltimore High Schools in 2016 had zero students proficient in math. [0]" and "In fourth- and eighth-grade reading, only 13 percent of city students are considered proficient or advanced. In fourth-grade math, 14 percent were proficient and in eighth-grade math 11 percent met the mark. [1]"

Even living in the nicer, lower-crime neighborhoods isn't enough for families if the school options are untenable.

[0] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-...

[1] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs...

And the 8th graders in downtown schools are reading at a 3rd grade level (according to teachers there). Due to our wonderful federal and state education system, schools are forced to pass kids or they get less funds. So not only can they barely read and write, they're forced on to more difficult subjects which it will be impossible for them to take on.

Besides the opioid epidemic, this is the next big epidemic: an entire generation of kids who are being doomed by horrible policies passed by politicians who will never be held accountable for them.

As a fellow Baltimorean, I just wanted to echo this sentiment. I have a one kid, and another on the way, and trying to find a reasonable neighborhood in the city to buy a house in is a nightmare. Really we can decide between Mt. Washington and Roland Park, but as you pointed out, even the high price tag to get into those neighborhoods doesn't help much with high school. I'm really at a loss for what to do, I'll probably try to move over the the county line into Pikesville or Catonsville.

Just curious, are you trying to stay super close to your job or is moving to Anne Arundel or Howard county an option for you?

I actually work in College Park, so it's a nightmare of a commute. My wife and I want to stay this far north because both of our families are here and help out a lot with childcare.

New York and Boston also have school choice systems. Neither have dismal schools across the board.

Yes, but (at least in New York) the school choice system still drives a non-trivial number of families to flee to the suburbs. Parents really value predictability, and the competitive application process doesn't provide that.

I'm not saying it's a bad system, but there's definitely a trade-off there.

> Middle schools and high schools are not assigned by neighborhood.

Also live in bmore. I think this is only for select top high schools like poly and is based on middle school grades and standardized test.

Agree tho that schools r shit.

All city high schools are assigned by choice/match. I think with middle schools it varies. https://www.baltimorecityschools.org/high-school-choice

FWIW, this is the same as San Francisco: https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-sch...

San Francisco uses a lottery for every grade, beginning with pre-K. This causes intense anxiety among many parents. But San Francisco doesn't struggle with the same problems as Baltimore, certainly not to the same degree. In the case of elementary school, other than the chance of not getting the closest school, the anxiety is largely unwarranted, IMO. I'm not looking forward to junior or, especially, high school, though. Unless we end up going the Catholic school route, which is surprisingly cheap--significantly cheaper than daycare.

Anecdote: A parent from our kid's preschool once told me they had a conversation with the principal of one of our neighborhood elementary schools and upon inquiring about the relatively early start time the principal told him, or at least insinuated, that the start time was designed to dissuade cross-town parents from selecting the school, effectively gaming the lottery system to favor neighborhood families.

My mistake. Thank you!

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