Failure Factory: Project Baltimore investigates 'ghost students' 

2:35….a student with a 0.13 GPA ALMOST ranks in the top 50% of the class….very concerning

How are you unaware that your child only passed 3 classes in 4 years? That is a parenting failure. Do you not look at report cards, talk to their teachers, go over their homework with them? Grade reports are generated every few months and all of us that are parents know to ask for them if they aren’t offered up our kid!

As an educator in a poor community for the past 25 years, I can tell you that the biggest problem we face is student behaviors and the lack of consequences at school and at home. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Schools can’t fix a culture that does not value education. That starts at home.

Kid passes only 3 classes in 4 years? What took her so long? I’d be screaming after one semester. Yeah, I’m gonna say it. Piss poor parenting!!!

I like how the mom is in denial that her son is not a failure! As if his grades being so bad that the governor gets involved doesn’t speak for itself

These schools are beyond negligent and corrupt, however, for any parent to allow their children to be enrolled in an institution without any awareness of progress or otherwise, is at the top of the blame chain.

0.13 GPA and Class ranked above 50%? That's alarming.

The mom trying to put this all on the schools is SO typical. Yes, the school did fail, but the mom failed worse.

How do you not know your son is failing at school until he’s 18? That’s negligence on her part. Did she not speak to her son at all? Maybe if she paid more attention to her child she’s have known.

Schools only get away with being this corrupt because parents have completely neglected their duties and responsibilities as their childrens' first teachers. If parents were informed, involved in their childrens' education, and actually did their jobs this would never even be possible. Parents who are informed and involved put pressure on the schools to do and give better

If this was a private or charter school people would have been fired by now.

So let's fix this. Enough blame has been passed around. Parents and teachers have failed these kids. What can we do to prevent this from happening/continuing?

She failed her child.... period. How do you not be engaged all of this time. The father failed him too for not being present or engaged 😮

I was definitely someone who judged this mother and young man when this story first broke out because I have children in Baltimore City schools and I know how awful and corrupt this school system is and how much every parent has to be involved for their children to have any kind of success. However, after hearing this report of how this young man and his mother turned things around for THEMSELVES. I want to commend them for their determination, preservation and hardwork. Don't let this awful city that I once loved chew you up and spit you out. You are too good for that, everyone is, no one deserves this. Show them your strength and power by succeeding when they thought they could tear you down.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The same problem is occurring in many other cities across America.

This should be one of the biggest stories in America. These incompetent criminals have to held accountable immediately!!!!

Atlanta school district was embroiled in a test cheating scandal. Many administrators were arrested. One assistant principal wasn’t charged. Sumter SC school district hired him as superintendent and he didn’t last a year. SC law enforcement agency was keeping advanced copies of standardized test materials under lock and key.

You don’t know what you don’t know. Read the book “a framework for understanding poverty” by Ruby K. Payne. It’s for educators, employers, policymakers, and service providers. However, it’s a great read for everyone and it’ll help to understand situations like this. Additionally, some people will try take advantage of you if you are not knowledgeable. The school is no better.

And not a single teacher interviewed....

I’m actually at a loss for words.

This goes to show that higher funding does not correlate to higher quality in education.

So sad. This is why education is number 1 at my house. It’s literally the collective goal of our family. My daughter has always been at private school. Since she was in pre-k3 and is now a sophomore. And let me tell you it’s a real struggle. I drive an old car, use coupons, work a night shift and a side hustle and moved to cheaper city and now commute all to make it work. We also do scholarships and grants. Those parents with money that don’t jump through hoops to be able to afford for their child to go there like I do, they’re so involved. I’m talking about tutors, SAT prep on another level, the school is ultra involved too. Lots of mandatory things like community service hours, college entrance workshops, etc all geared towards to getting a head start. They do career exploration, so many things that I have never heard about in public schools. Collectively their students get millions in scholarships for college every year. Which is crazy because so many of them don’t even need it. I know it’s not an option for all, which is why I am so grateful to be able to provide that for her even if it is an incredibly difficult thing to keep up.

This journalist is something else he does his job well!!!!

How was a kid who only passed 3 classes in three years set to graduate in 6 months at a new school? That's BS. Probably some school looking to use her kid for funds.

It's sad not only because the money is exchanged dishonestly, but children in school aren't learning the basics of math & reading. Therefore, the stolen money hasn't helped anyone, except line the pockets of thrives & keep the people who are supposed to control this student count & payment wrongfully employed.

Ghost students and ghost classes. So where is the money allocated for students going?

How can a student fail classes for 3 years? If I were a high school student, I would know what my schedule is, and I would know if I got a report card that had failed classes that I wasn't enrolled in, and I would see that something is wrong. Why did this high school let this stuff happen?

if they paid me 15k per child personally I would do my best to find their skill and talent as well..

Are there any truancy officers? If so, what are they doing about this issue?

Look ..I took my grandson out of bmore schools and am homeschooling him with the " Power homeschool "... left at 10th grade in January and will complete 11th grade by his 16th birthday... harder curriculum and focused education.... the school system should try this program and start each child 2 grades back and bring them up....

These people need to be criminally charged.

Thank God I went to a decent school and had strict parents

wait a minute what is the mother's role in all of this? Whenever i got home my dad would ask to see my schoolwork and check it. If there were any mistakes or it was sloppy he'd tell me to redo that part. There was no room to blame the teachers in the house i grew up, if i was sleeping or not paying attention in class the teachers let my parents now and my parents would talk with me. It's as simple as that. The parents need to be held accountable as well, it takes a village to raise a child and the parents are the centerpiece of that

That’s strange I just looked up Asian Baltimore public school stats , they’re doing pretty good and have been for a while.

I hate how the mother doesn't take accountability for her role in her child failing.

Do you realize the intricacy that goes along with the scan? Teachers come and go principles come and go HR come and go who keeps track of this ghost students that have been on the roster for more than 4 years? Someone that has never left Or benefits greatly Continues this practice

0.14 GPA!!! Get- r-done! Congrats to the student and the lucky mother!

18:49 So, in the most dangerous city, a student with a gpa of 0.13 went to a mentoring school and scored As, Bs. What they dint say is what courses was he taking??

why is this not a bigger story? Well the student ( Christopher)in question at least can be proud of himself,and his mother.

Baltimore City needs a tracking program similar to the Baltimore City Dept of Social Services that give alerts to students who are not present in school. These children are jailed, unlawfully staying home, moved out of state, homeless or have other issues that need to be legally addressed, abused, dead, etc. A system needs to be in place.

What needs to happen is all the officials need to be investigated for fraud. They accepted money and you have more than half of the class with the GPA at or about 0.13

More than $15,000 per student and teachers are still having to buy their own school supplies. And it’s certainly not going into the teachers paychecks. Where is the money going?

Single mothers asking for help instead of taking accountability. It’s not poverty it’s the culture.

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have. -black ppl in general

All i hear from the community is everyone is to blame. But no self responsibility, no self integrity. I thought this community said it takes a village! But when the whole village is corrupt what do you expect?!

Straight up- if the kids didn’t exist- where did the money go?

My mother had a nephew who was extremely hard of hearing. When he was very young, the doctors told his mother that he was retarded. My father said, "That's BS. You look into his eyes. He is not retarded. Daddy made a quick noise behind him, and no reaction. He said, "He can't hear." The boy grew up to become an electrical engineer.

Just further prove that the BC is done. We are failures. We are the laughingstock of the world.

The school sent report cards but they didn’t send someone to tell the parents to read them, or to read it for them.

That's what's wrong with us now we don't speak up or speak out or when we do its some ignorant mess. Keep fighting for what's right & your kids future

The big issue is that teachers are forced to assign a minimum grade of 50% even if they never turned in their work. And "passing" means he just broke the threshold of 60% which is absurd. So seeing all the grades at 50% shows the real issue. How he got pushed to the next class is beyond me.

Where is the outcry and where is the oversight from the district office and the school board . How could students be missing classes needed for graduation. They need to hold these leaders accountable. Also, parents have to become more aware of what's going on in these schools. They need to be more involved. We need to stop hiring people based on emotions. I'm nauseous just listening to the CEO. What will happen to these children?

He should just get a GED…only a few months of study needed

This makes me wonder whose pockets are being lined during this error.

The problem is obvious, the school lacks diversity.

Thank you for this documentary.

There is no solution. Sorry! I wish good fortune for any families who can move out of these cities/areas.

Corruption ... there is NO DOU T these just need to do some serious forensic accounting! But truthfully if you're child does not now basic skills .. that is the parents fsilt!

How did this happen for so long w/o parents fighting back? To have kids who can't read or do simple math? How did that one kid get to his senior year passing only 3 classes? Is the machine so powerful that parents didn't dare to complain or were any threatened? Why is Baltimore paying the school CEO over 444k a year? It's just a complete failure & the kids are paying the price. People need to get behind vouchers for school choice. The city has had more than enough time to fix problems. Now give the parents & kids a chance!

Damn. Education is the cornerstone of a functioning community. When you fail the kids…. You fail the communities’ future. I blame the parents…. And the community leadership.

Look at whos running your educational department 🤣🤣🥸

To this mother: your kid's education isn't something you put on auto-pilot. It's not nursery school. And, you failed your child if he is incarcerated.

Please remember this anytime someone just calls for the government to solve all of their problems

That mom is part of the problem. My God, can no one take accountability anymore?

The real question is, with all that extra funding, how are they failing?

Sounds like precision scheduling

2 problems here are the culture and the incentives facing political institutions rather than private, capitalist institutions. IRS and Census data show that during the first half of the twentieth century, black Americans had lower rates of homicides, fatherlessness, venereal diseases, teenage pregnancy, and general rates of crime. This happened when the supposed causes of the social pathologies, legacy of slavery, legacy of Jim Crow, redlining, etc. were WORSE in that time period. When the welfare state and the accompanying vision was established, the socioeconomic conditions were RAISED and yet the social pathologies also raised. This would not happen in a private/capitalist system. Simply put, the fact that the owner is legally entitled to the debt they accrue forces the owners to change course and actually provide people what they want. Government has no competition and faces none of the punishments for using scarce resources optimally because it’s all covered by the infinite pool that is the tax payer

This is a MAJOR issue. They are not educating our kids and this is not okay. All these kids are not given the proper education to take care of themselves. They need on outside independent company to monitor them. At this point they we’ll need to take unconventional measures to do right by the kids.

Not all the teachers are to blame. This isn’t just a Baltimore problem!This is nationwide I live in Texas and I know some teachers who say they aren’t allowed to fail students because they don’t do the work or don’t show up just get them out of here we don’t care what happens to them once they’re gone

Yay Democrats!! Our fellow Americans in Baltimore have NO ONE TO BLAME BUT THEMSELVES.

So many crooks!

I love that Mismanaged of student activities fund instead theft, all in the wording.

10:40 um thats almost litterly every school in the usa, no cooking skills, no tax skills, no wood working skill, no repair skills, no nothing skills,

🤔 Soooo who's been in charge of Baltimore for the last 20yrs ?

It is nice to see some investigative reporting from such a Blue City.

This been going on for years I get project Baltimore saying they broke this story but they had a whole episode about this on a Wire😂😂 where they basically hired some dudes to go round up a couple of students the bring them to school so they can get counted for the day to pad their numbers so they can get more funding it's almost the same exact story😂😂

Department of Education places money on enrollment which causes part of the problem.

Check your local public arrest record of kids that wher booked into detention during school yesrs , they probly sitting in prison victimized not even know about this story

where are the fathers? 😶‍🌫

Who's in charge of tracking this? Whoever it is they should be fired.

I'm sorry, I put the blame on the parents. No matter what's going on at home, YOU are ultimately responsible for your child's education!

My mother was a teacher in Baltimore City for 40 years and near the end of her career she was prohibited fro failing most students by the administration. Also he students sent back to her class that she removed for disruption. I graduated for one of the best public high schools in the city and if you failed, you were sent to summer school. If you still failed thaqt was it. You were removed from that school and sent to a lower school. I know people who graduated there and can't read, don't know their geography or basic math. My home towns school system corrupt. There are those who care but they are drowned out by the ones who want to go to work, collect that paycheck and go home.

I think it's ironic.That several of these are charter schools

The failure of public education shows that transparency is long overdue. Cameras are a good idea for police officers, so why not for the classroom?

Get the well known rappers to teach the schools

The parents of the underprivileged students gives a crap of what their kids are doing in school as long as the kids wash their hands before Sunday dinner

They should consider changing the name of that school. Angela Fells is failing the kids.

Why cant your don do anything to help himself? Why everybody have to help him?

Teachers are supposed to teach students but not be their students parents..And parents need to parent they laid down and had the kids

If I was a college admissions officer and I see that an applicant is from this school/district, I would have second thoughts about accepting them because of the school's (and district's) history of passing students on through and ghost students.

The mother is held responsible and the school system too. In certain states, if a child fails too many classes and or misses too many days, the parent is arrested and charged with neglect of a child's academics.

Baltimore City Public Schools Must Be Taken Over By The State of Maryland ASAP

In 5th When my teacher saw how crazy my dad was she changed a couple grades right in front of me and my mom when my dad went to use the bathroom

The parents and educators failed these students.

Malcolm X said it best. Only a fool trusts his enemy to teach his children

Is there an update video?

I got a failure notice first half of third grade I ultimately passed in June but my dad put me on punishment for the whole summer anyway all I could do is read books

So has anyone been charged?

In Baltimore the mayor is a Democrat. The city council president is a Democrat. 10 of the 14 city council members are black. The city council members are all Democrats. The police commissioner is is appointed by city leadership. Baltimore's AG is a Democrat. The issues in Baltimore are not due to racism. The issues are due to culture. They are also the fault of the Democratic Party. The last Republican mayor of Baltimore left office in 1968.

Kids can't read the diploma they got handed to them. This isn't isolated to Baltimore. As a Senior Computer Engineer for a major US computer company that starts with D. I was FORCED to hire young men that COULDN'T READ. Equity. In my interview with them I'd hand them their own application and ask them to read a specific question and their answer. They couldn't. A few even admitted that they didn't fill out their application. Bet you can guess their race. I was compelled to EXTEND their training. Customers knew. Major customers banned them from their sites. More overtime for me. Yeah. Loved working 80 hours a week