Talking education: Mayoral candidates discuss future of Baltimore City Public Schools

BALTIMORE - WJZ hosted a town hall on education topics within the Baltimore City Public School district with leading mayoral candidates on Wednesday.

WJZ anchor Denise Koch moderated the forum about "our students, our schools, our future."

Maryland's primary will be on May 14.

Based on polling, the Baltimore Teacher's Network invited the top four candidates to join the forum -- Thiru Vignarajah, Wendy Bozel, Donald Scoggins and  -- to answer a series of prepared questions.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott initially accepted the invitation but later declined to attend an anti-violence event in Baltimore.

"Unfortunately, I'm unable to join you all tonight due to an anti-violence event that requires my attendance," Mayor Scott said in a statement. "Making Baltimore safer has been my top priority as mayor. We've been able to reduce homicides and non-fatal shootings working in partnership with the community."

"I look forward to sharing my vision for keeping Baltimore moving forward at another time in the near future," he continued. 

Each candidates were given two minutes to respond to important questions about education. 

They shared their thoughts on what's working, what needs improvement and their ideas for the future of the school system.

"There is no topic more important than education and no greater job than our teachers," said Vignarajah, whose parents are retired educators. "The reality is our schools are broken. We need dramatic changes, establishing community schools, universal pre-k and mental health into every classroom."

"I am a teacher my mom was a teacher," Bozel said. "As a teacher, when I first walked into my classroom, I didn't have heat. Everything I asked for wasn't in the budget for 10 years. I looked into it, why am I cold? No A/C. I gave all the budgets to each principal. Let's bring everything back and bring it centrally."

"What I would like to do is have a very student-focused curriculum, Scoggins said. "Many are not performing well because they are not interested. Trade-based curriculum, open up these rec centers, internship-type program, have an internship in the local government so they can make some money. They want to make some dough, people can be productive citizens."

"I am a former teacher of Baltimore City Public Schools," said Dixon, a former mayor of Baltimore City. "Part of why I got into politics is because if we didn't change policy, how we work with our education system, then we were not going to progress. I'm a product of this school district. Baltimore gets more money per person but we're doing worse. Education is the key. Education is what's going to turn this city around."

Question: What's your opinion of current spending on public education in Baltimore City?

Vignarajah: We have the third highest expenditure, chronic absenteeism, really big challenge. We want to make sure the money is being spent on specific challenges. We do need more money, but I want to devote them to very specific purposes."

Bozel: I want to make sure every school is a great choice.. Prison to pipeline, they're going to test students in third grade based on their reading level. Have universal pre-k, two teachers in every classroom from kindergarten to second grade. I don't want any kid starting third grade and not being able to read. If they know how to read, then they won't go to prison. It's a shame that I had to learn about the school to prison pipeline. We need to work on the 58% of students that are absent, 122 students that were shot.

Scoggins: Work more with the families. A lot of the students, we have to look at the family, what are their situations at home. A lot of the crime committed is by young people. It's more than just the student, it's also the family. I would like to bring families into the mix. There is enough money to start bringing families in.

Dixon: The mayor appoints 7 of the 9 school board members. When you hear an administration say they are not responsible for the schools, that's false information. Accountability is needed now more than ever. Gambling was supposed to go to money for the schools. I believe we need to extend the school day, extracurricular activities, all of those are a part of the development. Families can come in and benefit. I believe in the community school concept, partnerships with officers in local neighborhoods.

Question 3: what are your thoughts on the national teacher shortage:

Vignarajah: This is a national crisis. We can barely get one teacher in every classroom.. There is lots of uncertainty. How they are going to get paid? We should establish very specific incentives, bonuses to teach, encourage teachers to teach at the hardest schools. We have profoundly broken schools. it is hard to be a teacher in this city. The salary is uncertain and we don't treat them like the backbone of our society.

Bozel: It is hard to be a teacher. The main thing teachers complain about is the paperwork and the time. We need to give teachers time and reduce the paperwork. We need to recruit more teachers. We should be coming into our local colleges and recruiting them, forgiving debt if they teach within five years. There are a lot of vacant schools, turn them into apartments and condos and house teachers in those vacant schools.

Scoggins: Reach out to retirees who are looking for a second career and have a lot of life experience.. Let them be able to teach one or three days a week. Certifications requirements can be adjusted. Teachers don't want to come in and be bureaucrats.

Dixon: Our schools have to be safe. Baltimore city public schools are not safe. It's a mission when you decide to be a teacher. Teachers today are not respected. We need to make sure they are respected and treated just the same as our football players, work with our universities and expose our young people early on. There are a whole host of other issues outside of salaries, discipline, families, working with our schools. We need to make sure we are talking to teachers. We not only hear them but that we work with them. It's not always about money if they have an environment that is clean.

Question: How do we address poverty?

Vignarajah: Education is connected to every issue. It is the center of poverty and crime and society. The reality is we have to do dramatic things to address the neighborhoods. We need to make sure these kids are getting an education that can get them out of poverty. We have to get them to school first. We can have someone going to their homes and checking in on them but we need to pick them up where they are. We have to put them on a track where they are doing the kind of work that will lift them out of poverty...some of them want to work with their hands... We've got to get the kids to the school and them teach them the skills and trades... ((quotes frederick douglass))

Bozel: We have to bring back the truant officers. Poverty is an issue. I asked a student why they weren't coming to school. A student didn't have a washer and dryer. We have money available to support these families. Students have to work to make extra money for their family to have food and pay rent. If we know that's an issue, we can support these students. Another issue with truancy, a lot of parents don't understand that it is against the law for your children to not go to school. We don't want to fine parents, but we want to remind them of the laws in the book.

Scoggins: Who says that kids need to go to school everyday? I think the students that are very innovative give them options. Use the other days to do more of their homework or go to work. Let's not give them a lot of stress by having them come to school every day.

Dixon: We have a nonprofit called Healthy Start and that's an opportunity to craft that baby, but work with that family. The way out of poverty is education. Why is it that everyone else can do well when they come into this country? Because they prioritize education. It might be a matter of creating internships for high school students. There are so many training opportunities for families to get out of poverty. Some of our community schools have laundry rooms based on the needs of the students' families. The school is the center of our communities and wee need to build on that.

Question: Rise of crime, gun violence, what is the solution to violence in our schools?

Vignarajah: The violence that we're seeing in our schools is because of what is seeping in from the streets. I don't want our schools to look like prisons. i don't want kids walking in and feeling like that. You take a risk when you introduce more guns in schools. Of course, we have to protect our schools. The overwhelming challenge is a mental health challenge, not an access to guns problem. They are both the victims and perps of these crimes. There are no consequences. Repeat violent offenders need to be taught that there are consequences for their crimes.

Bozel: I have a unique perspective because I work directly with them. As I've said before, we have to have the truant officers in order to make a difference for our schools. We need to open up the police athletic programs again. The youth violence was down when they had some place to go. Students were also in the police academy which helped fill vacancies. Get that mentorship going again.

Scoggins: Open back up the rec centers. I am in favor of resource officers having weapons. A lot of the young kids have weapons are in the schools and they are not thinking about it. I think we need to be very firm in that regard. Not having students go to school every day and going to work will help. Going to school every day doesn't necessarily mean kids are learning. The kids are bored. The kids that are committing these violent crimes, we need to ask them. engage them and find out what we can do to get their interest.

Dixon: I agree that we should not create prisons within our schools but we need to make sure that our kids that want to be in school are safe. Mediate between both families.  We have a shortage of school police officers and they need to be visible. Our school police officers are in the cars, not walking out and about. You walk the beat and make yourself visible,