Does Baltimore love its children as much as it loves the Ravens? Does Baltimore offer as much pre-school education as Tulsa, Oklahoma?
One of the reddest states in the nation, Oklahoma offers more pre-school education than any other state. Will high schoolers in Baltimore graduate with mastery of the skills they need in life? Or will they simply have passed the tests?
These challenging questions came from Pedro Noguera, school reform and diversity expert at New York University. Noguera spoke Tuesday during the 15th anniversary celebration of the Open Society Institute in Baltimore.
Seizing OSI’s demand for “big change “ and “audacious ideas,” Noguera challenged Baltimore to think more boldly and broadly. Students must leave school when they graduate with a keen understanding that knowledge is power.
Noguera, one of many speakers – including Dick Cass, president of the Ravens – challenged city leaders to lead. To demonstrate urgency. To be collaborators in the quest of a system of education that succeeds for the children. We don‘t have that now in much of the U.S., he said.
Another speaker, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Henry Cisneros, said Baltimore can take advantage of what he called a new economy. It’s based, he said, not on manufacturing but on bio-science, new forms of media and tourism. There are seeds of rebirth and growth here, he said, but the seeds need watering. Cities can’t stand still. They must grow to survive.
What is needed, he said, is what OSI preaches: new ideas, bold ideas, and collaboration. Mayors he said have to stimulate cooperation. Then, they must be traffic cops – to prevent accidents, and to find what he called the structures needed to channel effective action.
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