Maryland’s public schools a failure factory

OPINION:

Maryland public schools appear to be struggling. Despite a recent surge in funding, many key student academic outcomes have worsened. Some have worsened significantly.

What’s the problem?

To understand that question, we must first examine what Maryland taxpayers were told is the solution to underperforming public schools.

In 2021, lawmakers in Annapolis passed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. The law pumps an additional $30 billion in tax dollars into public education statewide over the first 10 years and $4 billion more every year after that.

Marylanders were told that additional funding would lead to improved student outcomes. I should know. My children attend Maryland public schools, and I have been following this topic professionally every day since 2017.

For the past nine years, I have been investigating Maryland’s public education system as a journalist for Sinclair’s Fox45 News Project Baltimore. When Project Baltimore launched in 2017, our mission was simple: Hold school leaders accountable.

My new book, “Failure Factory: How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprive Taxpayers and Students of a Future,” details our most shocking findings, obtained by following the money and shining a spotlight on why students continue to fail in an increasingly expensive school system.

The following data was all sourced from the Maryland State Department of Education.

In just the past three years, Maryland public education funding has increased 16%. Public schools are receiving billions of additional dollars from taxpayers. Last year, Maryland’s four-year high school graduation rate fell to 86.4%, its lowest level in three years. Also, last year, the high school dropout rate statewide increased to 9.9%, a 13-year high.

Many local jurisdictions are showing worse outcomes. Despite a 38% increase in funding since 2017, Baltimore City Public Schools’ graduation rate has increased by just 1%. Meanwhile, the city’s high school dropout rate is now at a 15-year high, of 20.8%.

Another major indicator of student success is SAT scores. In 2017, the average SAT score in Baltimore City was 910. By 2025, with $500 million in additional funding per year, the average SAT score in Baltimore fell to 856, the lowest in Maryland.

Prince George’s County Public Schools had the second-lowest SAT score in Maryland last year, at 893, down from 974 in 2017. Speaking of Maryland, the average SAT score statewide is also down, from 1063 in 2017 to 1001 in 2025.

Baltimore County Public Schools has historically performed worse. Even with a nearly $3 billion budget, BCPS’s high school dropout rate last year hit a 14-year high of 12.2%. At the same time, Baltimore County’s graduation rate is now at a 14-year low of 84.5%.

Baltimore City Schools attributes its current academic struggles mostly to COVID-19. Baltimore County attributes its problems to Hispanic and multilingual learners being “afraid to come to school” because of recent federal immigration enforcement. Maryland state education officials blame both.

It has been my experience as a journalist that when schools underperform, an external reason is always to blame, but what if the problems plaguing public education are internal?

“The situation is worsening,” says Barbara Dezmon. “And what’s worse, really worse about it, is that people are accepting it.”

Ms. Dezmon worked for 35 years as a teacher and then an administrator for Baltimore County Public Schools. She then served for 13 years as the education chair of the Maryland State Conference of the NAACP.

“I think the major problem now with education is acceptance — constant failure and acceptance,” she said. “These children go to school year after year, failing.”

Ms. Dezmon told me during a recent interview that when she retired from BCPS in 2010, she left a school system that was increasingly making decisions prioritizing the needs of adults over those of students. Over time, those decisions have created a school environment where students are less successful, she said.

State Department of Education data indicates that outcomes for public school employees are improving. The starting salary for a Maryland teacher will soon hit $60,000. Since 2021, when the Blueprint passed, Maryland has added 10,202 public school employees, even as student enrollment has decreased by 2,307.

More money. More school employees. Fewer students. It sounds like a recipe for increased student academic success. When that success doesn’t happen, it seems schools rarely look inward.

That might be the real reason educational outcomes are worsening. Because you can’t fix a problem until you are willing to acknowledge there is one.

• Chris Papst is a national Emmy-award-winning investigative reporter for Fox45 News and the author of the No. 1 Amazon bestseller “Failure Factory: How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprive Taxpayers and Students of a Future.”