Harrisburg Schools Taken Over By State, is Baltimore Next?

For generations, Baltimore City Public Schools have been underperforming. Every so often, talks of a state takeover emerge, which face plenty of pushback. But just north of Baltimore, a failing inner-city school system was just taken over by its state leaders. Is Baltimore next?

“I'm worried about my kids and every other kid,” explained Ana White, who was born, raised, educated and still lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “I worry about my daughter's emotional wellbeing.”

White has two kids and a lot of pride in her school system. So, earlier this year, when the state of Pennsylvania announced it was taking over, she was skeptical.

“As a product of the district, I'm never for it,” said White. “I think that I just had a level of spirit and morale about the school district. So having it be in the process of being taken over felt like we were defeated and it didn't really offer any hope to us.”

Pennsylvania’s decision to take over its capital city’s school system was generations in the making. In June, it finally happened. Two months later, White is grateful.

“I definitely think that it is in worse shape than I thought,” she stated.

Seventy-five miles south, in Baltimore, takeover talks are nothing new. In 2006, then, Maryland State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick tried.

"We have an obligation to every child in the public schools of Maryland and therefore we cannot feel comfortable that their children attending school's that are not making progress,” said Grasmick in 2006.

But there was a lot of pushback. It never happened.

"There are problems in the school system, we are trying to grapple and get our hands around it. We just don’t thinking bringing in an outside group will do any better,” replied State Senator, Nathaniel McFadden, also in 2006.

Thirteen years later, Baltimore and Harrisburg are very similar. Both have near identical test scores. In third grade Math, Harrisburg is at 16 percent proficiency, Baltimore 19. In third grade English, Harrisburg is 20. Baltimore is 16. High school attendance in Harrisburg is 75 percent. Baltimore is at 76 percent. And both districts have seen significant drops in enrollment as parents look for better options.

Just like White, Harrisburg Schools Board member Carrie Fowler at first fought the takeover. She now embraces it even though the school board, which is elected, has been stripped of all its power except to levy taxes. But Fowler believes it’s worth it.

“We never knew what was going on in the schools,” said Fowler.

Because after years of little to no transparency, the Harrisburg District’s books are now wide open. Fowler says everyone can now see the problems and work on solutions.

Explained Fowler, “If we restore and we make this a district where parents want to send their children, I think we're going to have more people moving back into the city.”

“I think that when this is all said and done and the dust settles and we are able to address the larger issues about what has been happening and providing as much stability as possible under our circumstances that parents will feel better, we'll at least have an answer to know how we will best move in the district, and things will look better for the city overall,” concluded White.