http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/2/mass_closures_of_detroit_schools_promotionMass Closures of Public Schools, Promotion of Charters Raise Fears of Privatized Detroit Education System
Detroit plans to close more than a quarter of its public schools at a time when private foundations are pledging hundreds of millions of dollars to reshape the Detroit public school system. The foundations are pushing for mayoral control of the school and the opening of dozens of new schools including charter schools. The plan is seen by critics as a move to privatize the city’s school system.
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DOUG ROSS: The vision of this group is an education market place in Detroit with common high performance standards in which DPS, charter, and private schools compete for students around those academic standards. No more ambivalence about whether good performing charters harm DPS. Robert Bobb, as you’ve heard, has said, welcome more competition. He has told us over and over again, bring it on. That is what we intend to do for the benefit of Detroit kids. So bottom line, the old plan said to parents, wait, be patient, give us another five years to improve the school where your child goes. This plan says, uh-uh, the waiting is over, we’re going to close low performing schools, we’re going to open new ones, and parents, now you have to take the initiative to go find the best school for your child. Big difference, new day.
AMY GOODMAN: But the plan to transform Detroit’s schools is seen by some as a move to privatize the city’s school system. The elected school board has already been stripped of much of its power. As a state appointed emergency financial manager now has full financial authority for the school district. Private foundations are ponying up hundreds of millions of dollars to fund school reform, but the public has little to no say in how the money is spent. To talk more about this, we’re joined by Nate Walker, a former Detroit schoolteacher and now a member of the School Development Team at the Boggs Educational Center. The Boggs Center is developing a plan to open its own neighborhood-based school next year. Nate, welcome to “Democracy Now!” Explain the way the system works. As I read about what is happening here in Detroit and talk to people, I am continually thinking about well, after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and about Arne Duncan recently, the Education Secretary saying the best thing to happen to education in this country is after Katrina in New Orleans.
NATE WALKER: Yeah, It is interesting that New Orleans has now become the model for school reform.
AMY GOODMAN: There they closed the public schools, fired all the teachers who were unionized.
NATE WALKER: Absolutely. So in New Orleans there is 4 public schools that have opened now, and it’s pretty much a charter run school system, and in many ways, that is what is happening in Detroit. Right before Robert Bobb announced that 44 schools would be closing, the Skillman Foundation along with other foundations announced that they would be opening 70 new schools in the next 5 years. So, currently in Detroit 70% of students in Detroit go to Detroit public schools and 30% go to charter schools. The Excellent Schools Plan, which was announced about a month ago, intends that by 2015 25% of students will go to Detroit public schools and 75% will go to charter schools. You can see the shift in who’s going to be providing education in the city of Detroit.
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