Follow the Money: Why Schools Keep Failing | 2/5/26

Public schools aren’t collapsing from a lack of money; they’re collapsing from how the system is built. Graduation rates rise, learning declines, and accountability quietly disappears.

As public school budgets grow, student outcomes continue to fall, raising questions few institutions want to answer. In this Thursday Deep Dive, Keith Malinak is joined by investigative journalist Chris Papst, author of Failure Factory, to examine how data manipulation, bureaucracy, and incentives quietly shape public education. Using Baltimore as a case study, the conversation exposes how systemic failure is normalized, protected, and misreported. The discussion closes by examining which reforms might actually work, and why meaningful change remains so difficult.

Chapters:

• 00:00 Public Schools Are Failing, But No One Wants to Say Why
• 05:12 More Money, Worse Outcomes
• 11:48 How Graduation Rates Hide the Truth
• 18:34 Teaching to the Test and Gaming the Numbers
• 26:02 Why Bureaucracy Is Protected Over Students
• 33:41 Baltimore as a Case Study in Systemic Failure
• 41:19 Where Accountability Actually Breaks Down
• 48:27 Who Benefits From the Status Quo
• 55:06 Why “Reform” Efforts Keep Failing
• 1:01:42 What Real Education Reform Would Require
• 1:09:58 Can Public Schools Actually Be Fixed?
• 1:18:36 What Happens If Nothing Changes

If the system keeps producing the same results, at what point does maintaining it become a choice rather than a failure?

Don’t be like the public school system and ignore the basics. Like the video, subscribe to the channel, and watch through the final chapters before weighing in.

Connect With Us:

Guest Chris Papst:

• X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/chrispapst
• Author of Failure Factory: How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprive Taxpayers and Students of a Future (Available through major booksellers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble)

🎙️ Watch the Show and Follow Keith

• X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/KeithMalinak
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@AtTheMicShow
• Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/@AtTheMicShow

🛠️ Production

• Produced by Wes of 2nd Floor Studios https://secondfloorstudios.co