Baltimore City Public Schools has approved a $1.95 billion operating budget for the 2026-27 school year, making it one of the highest-funded school systems in America. Yet only about 13% of its students are proficient in math, attendance is down, chronic absenteeism is higher, and average SAT scores have declined.
And with all of that, the city’s high school graduation rate is approximately 72%.
For nearly a decade, FOX45 investigative reporter Chris Papst has been looking into Baltimore’s public schools, and his reporting reveals how mishandled funds and poor incentives have created such bad outcomes for its students.
“The incentive structure that has been set up is one where the student doesn’t have to learn for the schools to get the money,” Papst explained.
Baltimore officials point to recent improvements in test scores, but Papst argues that the underlying problems deserve far greater scrutiny. In a conversation with Lyndsay Keith, he explains why what happens inside Baltimore’s classrooms should matter to communities everywhere.
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