Students wage hunger strike for education funds

Students with the Baltimore Algebra Project, along with community supporters, have been protesting the cutting of $3 million from a youth fund called “Peer2Peer.” Peer2Peer is a fund that provides funds to youth organizations for job training in knowledge-based jobs, instead of low-wage jobs at McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Target.

The Baltimore Algebra Project is a student group made of high school students across Baltimore who tutor and mentor fellow students. BAP uses the model of the original Algebra Project, which was created by Bob Moses of SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee) during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The concept behind the Algebra Project and now BAP is that at the same time as they are tutoring fellow students in math and sciences, students are encouraged to be politically active and advocates for social justice.

The students from BAP have been fighting for the last two years for full funding of education in Baltimore, which for decades has been shortchanged by hundreds of millions of dollars by the state of Maryland. Joseph H. H. Kaplan, chief judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore, even ruled in 2004 that Maryland owes the Baltimore Public Schools hundreds of millions of dollars.

It’s no coincidence that this has been taking place at a time when the public schools of Baltimore are 85-percent African-American. Racism is a strong factor in the underfunding of the schools. The public schools of Baltimore are made up of 10-percent white working-class youth, showing that racism also hurts working-class white youth too as their schooling is also underfunded.

Baltimore City is typical of most U.S. cities where high unemployment, lack of basic services, underfunding of education and police brutality reign for most Black and Brown youth. Only 38 percent of students who enter high school from the ninth grade will ever reach the 12th grade and graduate.

When the mayor of Baltimore, Sheila Dixon, announced she was cutting $3 million from Peer2Peer funds, the students from Baltimore Algebra—which is part of Peer2Peer—and community supporters decided enough is enough and decided to organize and mobilize to fight back. The students first organized to occupy the park in front of City Hall for three days to protest the cuts to Peer2Peer.

After three days of the encampment at City Hall, the students were threatened with arrest, and then decided to disband the encampment and regroup. A week later the students intensified the struggle by going on a hunger strike to expose the criminal lack of funding for education and job training for young people. Twelve students participated in the hunger strike, taking only water and juice for nourishment.

Mayor Sheila Dixon had scheduled a “gala” on June 2 to promote her youth programs for the city. Because of the hunger strike and the support of the community, over 200 students and supporters packed the gala, which they considered bogus. For the first time the mayor agreed to meet with the students.

Dixon called on all parties to compromise. The students agreed to call off their hunger strike and meet with her.

Chereaya Jones, a 17-year-old junior at Western High School and a BAP organizer, told Workers World: “We feel this is a victory that the mayor has agreed to meet with us; however, we know it is the mayor that needs to compromise and restore full funding to Peer2Peer. It is only because of our actions like marching, the encampment, and our hunger strike that she was forced to even agree to meet with us. We know we must keep the pressure on because the mayor claims the money isn’t there but when big businesses need money, they find it. Now is the time to find the money for young people.”