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Improving Educational Opportunities in Baltimore City

Expanding Public and Private School Choices

By Dan Lips
Published on Monday, September 22, 2008
MARYLAND POLICY REPORT

On May 17, 2008, 300 students from across Maryland sought to be among the first 80 students to enroll in the SEED School of Maryland, a statewide college preparatory academy set to open in Baltimore in August 2008.[1] The lucky students were drawn through a lottery.

The Baltimore Sun reported that parents cried with joy when their children's number was called. Families with unlucky children whose numbers were not called were left shedding tears of disappointment. "It was a long shot...but it was a chance we had to take," explained Maurice Chandler, who son was seen crying when he was not chosen.[2]

This scene is evidence of the crisis in Baltimore City's public schools, where a child's opportunity to attend a safe and effective school is left to chance. For more than a decade, state and local policymakers have sought to improve children's opportunities by reforming the city's beleaguered public school system. Those reforms have largely failed.

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[1] Tanika White, "Parents, kids pin their hopes on one white orb in boarding school lottery," Baltimore Sun, May 18, 2008.

[2] Ibid.

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