22 year old considering Baltimore after graduation

[jonjj]

Cathalain, I take issue with one of two things you mentioned although I enjoyed your post. My major concern is what you said about the schools. Would I want my child attending one? It would definitely have to be the right one. And, that is my point. There are some good schools within the Baltimore City Public School System. And I will not speak for the middle schools but there has been progress made at the elementary schools and some of the high schools. In particular, I have heard although no personal experience, that City College, Western, and Poly and three of the best schools in the region: all city schools. Also, I have read comments on this site and spoke with people who are not overjoyed with their local elementary school but see progress being made.
Yes, there are some horrible situations coming out of our school system but I try not to lop them all together and say the entire system is bad. My point: there are some good ones.
My other point has to be about the mayor. At first, I wasn't jumping for joy when Ms. Dixon got elected. But, all in all, given what she has, I am happy with her progress. She has a lot on her shoulders and I will say that she may be on the right path. Give her some time. She may surprise us. I was also very happy with O'Malley as mayor. I think he did much to improve the psyche of the city.
The rest of your points are right on although sometimes the blue lights are placed at a given location to prevent things from starting moreso to report things that are already occuring.

[Cathalain]

Thanks for your response, jonjj, and you also have some well-made points, particularly about Mayor Dixon. I admit that she has the power to get things done, and she's certainly trying. She's got a lot of plates to balance, I agree with that. I'm particularly pleased with the road improvements as of late - Greektown's looking better and better these days!

The schools, though, I do stand by what I say there, simply because it's never been what could be called a "good" situation on that front. City, Poly and Western are the shining examples - but I must add that they are the exception and not the rule, at least when I was attending city schools in the late 80s.

The way that the city schools used to be are as follows: in middle school, you would take a test to "place" into those schools - City, Western, Poly and at that time, Baltimore School for the Arts - if you didn't do well on the test (and most of the students that weren't already in gifted programs didn't), you were dumped into what was called 'the zone schools' - which would be the feeder schools that were attached to your neighborhood such as Southern, Northern, Southwestern, etc. Those schools had a much higher crime rate, a much lower quality of education, and you had no choice as to which school you would attend. I lived in the zone for Northern High School, and at the time, Northern was the worst in the city - there were rapes in the stairwells and drugs being sold in the hallways. My family moved because I was slated to attend Northern High School if I didn't pass the test.

The way that I understand it, the kids have a choice now as to where they want to go - but in all honesty, from the things that I hear from both news reports and parents who have students in the city system (the ones who care, anyway), it doesn't seem to have gotten any better. I could be wrong on this and I'd love to hear from others who have their children in the school system and can report positive things.

[carolott]

My son attends a public elementary/middle school, and we've been very happy with the progress he's made. He has caring teachers and really nice classmates -- most of whom have involved parents who want to make the school better for all students. Theirs is a very active PTO.