TDP Op-Ed in Baltimore Sun

Treat neighborhood schools like charters

By Helen Atkinson, Corey Gaber, Ben Dalbey

In the wake of a contentious debate in Annapolis this spring that featured a bill that gives charter school operators more control over their schools (while principal autonomy was rolled back at struggling traditional schools), a show down over supplemental education funding, and a great deal of rhetorical debate around “autonomy,” “choice,” “accountability” and “successful” schools, we are wondering where the neighborhood schools are left.

Is the implication that teachers and principals in traditional schools are fundamentally different from principals and teachers in higher status schools? Would they fail to rise to the occasion if they were given the same deal that charters have?

See Op-Ed in Baltimore Sun here.

THE REAL NEWS NETWORK COVERS SCHOOL LOCK-IN

The Real News Network (TRNN)-The Real Baltimore talked with Park Heights residents and supporters about keeping Langston Hughes Elementary School open. Director of Teachers’ Democracy Project (TDP), Helen Atkinson, was also interviewed and shares her support for LHES highlighting the disparities in the selection of schools slated to close as well as how small schools like LHES are anchors for residents.

View the full video and transcript by TRNN here.

Image courtesy of The Real News Network

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 12, 2015

Mass rally and protest to bring attention to the racial disparity in school closings in Baltimore

The school board says that Langston Hughes Elementary School (at a total enrollment of 176) is too small, and that: “declines in enrollment make it difficult to support and maintain robust programming.”  (Baltimore City School Closure and Relocation Report) In fact, small size has been the only consistent reason given by school system administrators for closing Langston Hughes, a reasonably successful and well-respected school in a struggling, low-income black neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore.