The news is worse than I expected. The Archdiocese of Baltimore is closing 13 schools, including 10 in the city of Baltimore. That represents more than 20 percent of the system's schools. More than 2,000 students will be displaced, many of whom are low-income, minority kids from the area's toughest neighborhoods.
I appreciate the nation's increased efforts to improve failing public schools. But I wish we could give a little attention to preserving the high-performing, high-poverty private schools that are disappearing before our eyes.
When we have a paucity of great schools in America's inner cities, it just doesn't make sense to allow the few that we do have to close their doors. Kids first.
--Andy Smarick
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Baltimore