Baltimore students demand jobs & education

On Oct. 16 more than 300 students, parents and supporters marched and protested for better schools and against the lack of jobs for young people in Baltimore. The march, organized by the Baltimore Algebra Project, started at City Hall and then snaked through downtown Baltimore.

The BAP is a student group that helps tutor other fellow students in the city. The last couple of years the group has evolved to not only tutor fellow students but to take an active role in advocating and fighting for better schools and opportunities for young people.

The march was very militant and spirited. Students chanted: “No Education! No Life! Whose streets? Our Streets! We deserve a fair fight! Education is our right.”

The protest demands were jobs for all young people; quality education must be a constitutional right; power for young people in our schools; and to Governor O’Malley: pay the 800 million dollars owed to Baltimore schools.

A couple of years ago a circuit court judge, Joseph Kaplan, ordered that Baltimore’s public schools were owed more than 800 million dollars because the state had not lived up to its obligation in funding Baltimore city schools.

Dwayne Jackson, a high school student from Connections Academy, told this reporter the reason why he was protesting: “I am here because I am angry over the fact that the government has billions of dollars for wars such as Iraq but doesn’t have money for our schools. Sometimes we don’t even have toilet paper in our bathrooms.”

Karen Jones, a parent, commended the students for their activism and believes there is a new generation of young people ready to organize for a better world.

The organizers of the protest promised to be back and keep marching and protesting until their demands are met by the mayor, school board and governor.

—Report and photo by Steven Ceci