It seems although Detroit Public Schools received a new superintendent last summer, my beloved school system is still failing at getting it right. While all the blame shouldn't be placed on Superintendent Connie Calloway but a good share of it is her fault as well as our school boards fault. While Calloway and the School Board are planning to get Detroit Public Schools out of the red tape by laying off nearly 1,400 employers in order to balance the Districts budget. However the way they plan to do is what I am questioning.
Calloway and the Board plans to lay off nearly 818 teachers and majority of them are the new and young teachers who just came to the board. Therefore I am deeply hurt by the fact that this is the type of solution that Calloway and the Detroit School Board has come up with because it is teachers that any school system should try to keep. Calloway and the Board have failed the Detroit Public School which despite what Senator Barack Obama said on Monday while in Detroit at rally, has not been failing for decades. In fact Detroit Public Schools just recently started failing after the State took DPS over in a school takeover, strapping the citizens of Detroit of their right to elect a school board until 2005 when a new board was finally elected.
Nonetheless, Detroit finds its self in a situation where they want to lay off teachers but not cut any of the salaries of those who work downtown at any of the school center buildings. Also I don't see Calloway or any Board members saying they are taking a pay cut in order to help meet the needs of the deficit. So it is important that the citizens of Detroit realize that what is happening to Public Education in Detroit is a shame. At the current rate of having a superintendent and board members who don't care about kids, than Public Education is Detroit will surely no longer exist. While I saw hundreds of thousands of folks line up to meet Senator Obama and hear his speech, I see no huge rallies or protests in front of any School Board members houses or Calloway's house for their inability to find solutions to the problems that ail the Detroit Public School system.
I find the fact that many teachers were not out there protesting and picking tonight's school board meeting is a shame. Do we even care any more about our children's education. If we care than we would understand that real change in politics starts with education. When you an 11 member school board with 10 of them not having experience in Detroit Public Schools as teachers, counselors or administers. It makes me question who elected these people. Its not enough to simply stay in the city of Detroit and say you went to DPS but you need to really know the system as it currently sits. Many of the Board members are employed by big corporations or sit on boards of companies that have a vested interest in destroying DPS schools and bringing in charters which is currently about to happen.
Calloway inherited a failing school system at Normandy and she didn't turn that district around so I don't understand why our school board thought something would be different because she inherited a failing district here and in her first year, no one can tell you what improvements she has made and that is including practically the same board members who elected her to be superintendent knowing that she has never dealt with a district of this size before. Thus the $400 million deficit that can be wiped out by cuts and layoffs could have been avoided if our board had hired a more suitable person for the job. So it brings me to question the motives of many of our school board members in hiring Calloway saying she was the best person for the job. Now a year later and many are saying the honeymoon is over. This is truly a sad day for the city of Detroit after a promising week that started with perhaps the first African American President in the United States of America coming to Joe Louis arena to speak in hopes of garnering votes.
Calloway does share some of the blame herself because while she was bringing in many of her former staff from Normandy, she should have had a plan for the first 90 days she was to take office. However Calloway's first 90 day plan consisted of hiring her staff and giving them huge pay raises like the School Board gave her when she was hired as superintendent. So since we are facing a $400 million deficit, you would think Calloway would be laying off many of her staff or at least cutting their pay but that is not the case.
It is idiots like these politicians that give Detroit a bad name and if we the citizens of Detroit don't do something this problem soon than we will be facing the complete dismantling of Detroit Public Schools by the Summer of 2010. I hope that is not the case but as of right now, all with a vested interest in Detroit Public Schools need to plan for the worst and pray for new leadership in Detroit Public Schools.
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