Dank Microwave Taco

Massive cultural and systemic issues.

1. The racist cultural belief that to excel in school is "acting white" that teachers brought up in neomarxist colleges actively agree with. (The academic term 'whiteness' is evidence of this) -- this obviously only applies to regions that are majority black.
2. The active destruction of the family by the state such as through policies that actively encourage single motherhood and discourage men from acting as fathers.
3. Teachers more interested in being activists than teachers. They'll teach you to go vote for whatever the teachers union supports but don't care so much about reading and writing.
4. Teachers using non-evidence based teaching methods that don't work. For example, we know phonics is the best method for teaching reading and writing at a basic level, but it's boring to teach compared to other methods that are less effective but more fun.
5. Gangs and gang culture leading to kids acting like criminals and seeking that lifestyle instead of the more boring and less glamorous stuff like getting a boring 9-5
6. A percieved or actual lack of opportunities for gainful employment in their local areas leading kids to completely disregard excelling academically as a potential pathway for a good life.
7. I really need to mention again that teachers are being more interested in their social causes than doing their jobs. What is the biggest issue in the US with respect to schools right now? Is it the appalling lack of literacy? Is it something from the above list? No, it's teachers want to be able to inculcate kids into weird sex stuff without informing parents. The "banned books" they're complaining aren't political books like the communist manifesto being banned for being unpalatable politically, they're sexually explicit books with pictures and language so explicit it gets people banned from schoolboard meetings just for reading them out loud, and kicked off of TV, and banned from Youtube. If you're not teaching kids to read, then that should be the #1 priority. Parents rights or academic freedom are red herrings when kids are graduating without the basic skills to exist in society.
8. Standards are just low in general because of a focus on the diploma over the knowledge one should have to get the diploma. It isn't Baltimore, but a couple years ago Portland was graduating more people than ever before -- an 86% graudation rate -- while only 30% of students were at grade level for math skills. Why try if you're going to 'succeed' whether you try or not?

Two important things to note besides this: First, 13 schools failed to create a single literate student, but many of the schools in the same region are not far behind. Second, this isn't a "Baltimore" problem per se, the same problems occur in many schools across America. Remember that video that went viral a while back of the black high school girl beating the white high school student into convulsions? You look it up, that school only produced something like 13% of students at an expected level of literacy and many schools in that city (I don't recall what it was off the top of my head) were not much better. It's a common problem in many regions in the US, particularly cities like Philadelphia, and Chicago.

So it's corruption and it's incompetence all the way down.