Good morning.
Baltimore City Public Schools has a nearly $2 billion operating budget.
It is one of the highest-funded large school systems in the country.
And yet, investigative reporter Chris Papst says many of the district’s most important academic indicators have barely improved, or have gotten worse.
So where is the money going? And what does Baltimore tell us about the limits of simply spending more on struggling schools?
Today: Lyndsay Keith speaks with Papst, the lead investigative reporter for FOX45’s Project Baltimore, who has spent nearly a decade examining public education in Maryland.
Baltimore Is Spending More on Schools. Why Aren’t the Results Following?
Baltimore City Public Schools has approved a $1.95 billion operating budget for the 2026-27 school year.
When Project Baltimore launched in 2017, Chris Papst says the district was spending substantially less while educating more students.
Since then, funding has risen sharply while enrollment has fallen.
The results have been far less dramatic.
“More money to educate fewer kids, but yet the educational outcomes are simply not getting better. Now the main educational outcome that people look at is graduation rates. In 2017, the graduation rate in Baltimore City Schools was 71%. The graduation rate right now, in 2026, is 72%.”
Papst says attendance is lower than when Project Baltimore began, chronic absenteeism is higher, and average SAT scores have declined.
Baltimore has also consistently ranked among the country’s highest-spending large school districts on a per pupil basis.
That makes it a useful case study for a much bigger question:
What happens when a school system gets more money, but student outcomes don’t improve at the same pace?
Where Is the Money Going?
Papst says the overwhelming majority goes to people: salaries, benefits, and pensions.
But he argues the more important question is which positions are growing.
In recent years, Maryland public schools have added thousands of employees even as enrollment has declined. Papst says non-instructional positions have grown faster than teaching positions.
He also points to the way school funding is structured.
Schools generally receive money based heavily on enrollment. That funding is not directly tied to whether an individual student becomes proficient in reading or math.
Papst says that creates a problem of incentives.
“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.”
His argument is that the system rewards enrollment more directly than it rewards achievement.
Papst also points out Baltimore’s grading policy as an example of how schools try to keep struggling students moving toward graduation.
Under what he calls the “50 percent rule,” students cannot receive below a 50% for a marking period, even if they complete no work.
“The student never has to show up, never has to take a test, never has to do an assignment, and that student will get half credit for that course.”
The logic is that a zero can make it almost impossible for a student to recover later.
Papst argues the tradeoff is lower expectations.
He says teachers have told him some students understand the system well enough to calculate how much work they can skip and still pass.
Papst has also spent years looking at schools that succeed despite serving many of the same students and communities.
One Maryland elementary school he profiled sends teachers to students’ homes before the school year begins.
They meet parents, see where students live and establish a relationship before the first day of class.
Papst says the school continues to outperform state averages despite serving a high-poverty student population.
For him, that is evidence that outcomes are not determined by money or demographics alone.
Baltimore’s school district says its current budget is investing heavily in literacy, math, tutoring, counselors, and special education.
Maryland education leaders also point to recent incremental improvements in statewide test scores.
But Papst argues the larger system has changed very little.
“It’s the same system as when I went to school. I graduated high school in 1998 and it’s the same public education system, when the world has drastically changed.”
The harder question is what happens after the money arrives.
What does the system reward? What happens inside the classroom? And how should taxpayers measure whether the investment is actually working?
Baltimore City Public Schools’ approved operating budget for the 2026-27 school year.
Papst’s reporting asks whether the size of that $1.95 billion investment is translating into the outcomes parents and taxpayers expect.
That’s the briefing for today.
If your local school district received a major funding increase, what result would convince you it was working?
Higher test scores? Better attendance? More students reading at grade level?
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