Educational Crisis: Baltimore High School Fails To Produce A Single Proficient Math Student In Four Straight Years

President Trump’s executive order earlier this year to dismantle the Department of Education comes as the president highlighted a disturbing and inconvenient truth about Baltimore City’s Democratic Party-run “failure factory” school system: 40% of public high schools have zero students proficient in math. This damning statistic follows eight years of Fox45 investigative reporter Chris Papst’s coverage of the crime-ridden city’s education crisis. Keep in mind, the metro area is mainly controlled by leftists at City Hall, with virtually no diversity when it comes to Republicans holding positions of power.

A new report by Papst released this past week may catch the White House’s attention, highlighting yet another inconvenient truth about the stunning failure of Baltimore City Public Schools in terms of academic outcomes, proving that simply throwing more taxpayer funds at the problem is not a viable solution.

Papst spoke with Carl Stokes, a former Baltimore City Council member and charter school operator, who was visibly frustrated when asked about the fact that for the fourth consecutive year, not a single student tested proficient in math at Achievement Academy in northeast Baltimore.

Here’s the Papst–Stokes conversation, woven into the report on yet more failures from Baltimore:

“You’re shaking your head,” Project Baltimore’s Chris Papst noted of Stokes during an interview.

“Well, of course,” replied Stokes. “How long have we been talking about this?”

Stokes, for years, has been talking about the lack of education for many students in Baltimore City Public Schools.

“They do a horrible job,” Stokes remarked.

Now, Stokes is responding to what Fox45 News discovered in the recently released results for the state known as MCAP – the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program.

“That school should be closed,” stated Stokes.

Achievement Academy at Harbor City is a high school in northeast Baltimore. According to MCAP data analyzed by Project Baltimore, Achievement Academy has not had a single student test proficient in math in four years. Over the last four school years, 134 students at the school have taken the state math exams. Not one scored proficient.

“It says that the leadership is worthless, pretty much. They are failing their mission. They are failing the students,” said Stokes.

City Schools, on its website, defines Achievement Academy as an alternative placement school for students who struggle in traditional academic settings. The school’s vision, according to its website, “is to cultivate lifelong learners and productive citizens.”

And the school gets a lot of taxpayer money to achieve that vision. According to state data, in 2021, Achievement Academy received $20,014 for each one of its 372 students. By 2024, Achievement Academy had an enrollment of 202 and received $42,618 per student. In other words, over those four school years, Achievement Academy’s per student funding more than doubled and not one student, over those years, tested proficient on the state math exams.

“When you look at a school like Achievement Academy, and you look at the amount of money it’s getting and the education the students apparently aren’t getting, who do you hold accountable?” Questioned Papst.

“You start with North Avenue headquarters. You begin with that leadership. From superintendent, CEO and her cabinet. And then the local school leadership,” responded Stokes.

One Baltimore City high school has not had a single student test proficient on the state math test in 4 years. Project Baltimore digs into the numbers and talks with a former Baltimore City Councilmember who says the school needs to be closed.@chrispapst @FOXBaltimore pic.twitter.com/DwyUOszBWl

— Project Baltimore (@Project_Bmore) September 15, 2025

For nearly eight years, ZeroHedge has followed Papst’s investigative work through the trenches of school to school across Baltimore City. Papst has conducted all the investigative work through Project Baltimore, in collaboration with Fox45 News. He has spent years reporting on optically displeasing headlines that merely expose how progressive elites running the school system have effectively robbed multiple generations of children of a future for short-term gain to line their pockets and possibly funnel taxpayer funds into the Democratic Party machine, which is nothing more than corrupt unions. 

Maryland Taxpayers…

Over the past couple years, your hard work has helped INCREASE public school funding by $2 BILLION.

According to state data, education spending is up 16% over 3 years. Meanwhile, the graduation rate is up 1%.

More details coming soon. https://t.co/bhiSMdQSLg

— Chris Papst (@chrispapst) September 17, 2025

Baltimore is an easy layup for the White House to convey to the American people during the Midterm election cycle just how terribly the Democratic Party has transformed once vibrant cities across America into what the president describes as “hellholes.”

Related:

• “Failure Factory” Schools Run By Democrats Plague Baltimore And Chicago, Present Societal Crisis

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