Schools face a math problem: Money is running out and kids are still behind
![Education, Schools, Math](https://www.allsides.com/sites/default/files/styles/news_large_image/public/School%20kids.png?itok=rao303OC)
Black marker in hand, Nick Baar returned to the whiteboard. The newly minted math tutor wrote an equation for the eighth-graders in front of him:
25 x 199
The rules were simple: No calculators or pencils allowed. Baar wanted to see if his students at Perry Street Preparatory, a charter school in Northeast Washington, could solve the problem in their heads. They had breezed through an earlier problem — 25 x 200 — but now appeared stumped. The group sat in silence.
One boy spoke up. He knew 25 x...