OSI-Baltimore stands with our grantees, the ACLU of Maryland and the NAACP Legal and Education Defense Fund, who joined parents of Baltimore City Schools students in filing a lawsuit against the state of Maryland, alleging that the state has not lived up to its obligations under the Bradford vs. The State of Maryland case and subsequent consent decree. According to the Thornton statewide funding formula, Maryland should be spending $200 to $300 million more on Baltimore City Public Schools.
“We want to make sure the current and next generation of black and brown kids in city schools are able to fully realize their dreams and not be held back because the state of Maryland didn’t provide the resources for them to succeed,” Dana Vickers Shelley, executive director of the ACLU of Maryland, told the Sun.
“OSI-Baltimore has engaged multiple strategies to obtain adequate funding for Baltimore City students for years,” says Karen Webber, director of OSI’s Education and Youth Development program. “We turn to litigation after exhausting all other possibilities and agree with our partners that our students can no longer wait to receive what they deserve.”
In videos posted on the ACLU website, Baltimore City Schools students and teachers discuss how buildings without heat or air conditioning, with lead water pipes, and other serious problems with infrastructure present barriers to learning.