College Readiness is NOT a luxury. Just because you're seeing the schools with the worst scores doesn't mean there aren't students in the city doing amazingly well. I commend you for actually looking at the budget, but I'm not convinced your approach would fix much.

Also, as a side note, the reason why Baltimore spends so much per pupil is because poor kids are more expensive to teach. Their immediate physical needs (food, clothes, before- and after-care) that can't be provided at home are often provided by the schools. Poor students often need counselors, school nurses, and psychologists at much higher rates than rich kids, also paid for by the school. Do you have any idea how many of my students rely on the school nurse as their source of primary care? Not to mention the fact that many of Baltimore's schools are falling apart and need constant fixes just to be habitable. It's the Sam Vines Boots-Theory at the systemic scale.

Are we paying too much on personnel? Maybe! But there aren't exactly qualified teachers lining up to work in a school system whose main source of media representation is Fox45's smear campaign. Even at the rates we pay now, we can't fill all of our vacancies.