Baltimore School Taps Famous Alumni for Funding Help

BALTIMORE (AP) – A Baltimore City school is hoping its famous alumni can help it survive planned budget cuts.

Media outlets report that on Monday night, actor Josh Charles became the first to take up the cause of helping the Baltimore School for the Arts. He wrote a series of tweets to his 126,000 followers spotlighting the $130 million budget gap faced by the school and other Baltimore public schools.

The Baltimore School for the Arts, which also counts actress Jada Pinkett Smith and rapper Tupac as alumni, provides arts education alongside a traditional academic curriculum.

If forced to gut the part-time staff that teach dance, acting and visual arts, students would go from four hours of arts training per day to just one.

School Director Chris Ford says he hopes big name alumni could help bring attention to the issue.