My Perspective: More Charter Schools Are on the Way to Detroit

The battle lines have been drawn in the sand in regards to education in the City of Detroit. It is clear that with Detroit Public Schools failing track record and instability to manage its budget, the state of Michigan and others around the state as well as key figures in Detroit are pushing for charter schools to be a key component to reform in Detroit’s educational landscape. With more school closures in Detroit, the opportunity to open up more charters has been ramped up due to DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb’s comments regarding using federal dollars to build a new Mumford High School before possibly turning it over to a charter school company to manage.

Bobb revealed that DPS’s deficit is $430 million up from the $305 million he thought it would be and he spoke of how federal stimulus money would be coming to DPS to help build a new Finney High and a new kindergarten through 8th grade school. However at the same time, Bobb said the next installment of funds would go to making a new Mumford before it is handed over to be managed by Doug Ross’s nonprofit charter school management company, New Urban Learning. Ross is the founder of University Preparatory Academy charter school and the revelation that DPS is in talks with his company gives the charter school movement signs that DPS is finally ready to embrace charter’s like never before. Robert Bobb stated that the good news is that both DPS and charters are at the table and Ross isn’t the only charter school company meeting with the district but several have. In fact 40 schools that are to be reformed next year may become charter schools or managed by companies.

The only question is whether or not the new charters will be under the umbrella of DPS or not similar to the models of charter school academies that were implemented in Chicago and that President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan have taunted. But nonetheless Bobb’s comments at the Detroit Athletic Club during and after the Pancakes and Politics forum on the city's educational crises have awoken many to the issue that DPS will no longer be the main player in terms of education in the city of Detroit. DPS is facing the nation's largest school closure, enrollment decline and budget woes but the district is talking about allowing more charters in which could add to DPS’s enrollment decline as well as more school closures due to shrinking student enrollment.

Now Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said "DPS has not had a sustainable plan." This is true, DPS doesn’t have a clear cut academic plan and hasn’t had won for nearly or decade or more. You can see that by achievement gap in DPS compared to other school districts. Thus Johnson’s comments states a concern that many in DPS particularly educators and those who work in the schools have stated for nearly a decade. Under the state takeover, DPS began perhaps its sharpest decline in academic achievement and its drop out rate rose greater with the greatest increase starting after students finished the 6th grade.

But still DPS is in negotiations with charters not because it is academically better for students but for financial reasons. While in talks with charter schools about reforming some DPS schools, Bobb pointed out that DPS is financially hurt when students return to DPS from charter schools. Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers agreed. Too often students transfer back to DPS after the charter schools have collected the funding, heaping "the burden of educating those children on us without the necessary finances." But Ross said schools need not fight over students and school choice. "They're all our children." But while they are all our children, it is clear that many students enroll in other school districts but those school districts only tolerate them up until the point when those students finances are processed before kicking those students. Thus those students are forced to return to DPS particularly their neighborhood school where they are now sharing some of the finances of another student. So imagine if there are at least 1,000 or more of these students, it limits the amount of funding a school can use in order to help students achieve. While other school districts usually have a surplus of funds they can use toward student achievement and other things because they got the money for students who aren’t even there anymore.

Still, the debate over charter schools is heating up in Detroit like never before and it seems as if DPS is at the bargaining table with charters so charters are on the way because of this talk. However the other key factor in this equation is mayoral control of DPS as well as the appointment of two new board members with one being former Deputy Mayor under Kilpatrick, Adams. Thus with Bing saying he would welcome control of DPS and U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan supporting mayoral control of major school districts because that’s how it is in Chicago despite Chicago schools not be better than other urban school districts but still this is the notion that has Bing talking about education. Bing has repeatedly since winning the mayoral talked about education more than he talked about during his campaign.

Then with Bing hiring a well-respected, high level advisor on education, Sue Carnell, to be on his staff, it signals all the more that Bing wants control of DPS because why would he hire her if he didn’t plan to do something with the schools. So with talk of charter schools and a pro-charter mayor wanting control of DPS, it is clear that DPS will never be the same again and those in the charter movement are gaining significant allies with the City of Detroit and Detroit Public Schools. The writing is on the wall and unless a huge wave of anti-charter people steps forward with a big name attached to the movement, it is now a train set in motion that charters are coming and it is just a matter of paperwork now before it is a done deal.

Just for more about the school reform movement, read the article below that came from the Detroit Free Press. It sums up just what is taking place and how it is going down. So the charter movement can rejoice with the school reform that is soon to take place but no matter what reform comes, it has to deal with student achievement because that is what the kids of the City of Detroit need. Regardless if it is charter or public, education has to be able to create a better educational environment than the one the children of the City of Detroit is currently receiving. So it doesn’t matter if a mayor controls schools, a traditional school board/superintendent does or a charter school management company because they all have to put together a plan that will deal with sustaining education in Detroit for years to come. It is about the youth and educating them the best way possible so they can compete globally in the future.

School reform ideas finally gain steam
For years, Michigan's education debate has sounded like two divorced spouses, arguing over who ruined their miserable marriage.

One spouse is the older, more established partner, the teacher unions. They blame everyone else but themselves for so many schools' lousy quality. Their leaders, particularly at the Michigan Education Association, have trapped in a self-made world of victimhood and denial.

The other, younger spouse is no less culpable, stuck in the same self-deceptive world. That spouse is the charter school movement, which overall has produced schools so pathetic in communities such as Detroit, they're pretty much as dismal as the traditional public schools. As Los Angeles Green Dot 'Our schools suck a little less charter school operator Steve Barr puts it: " than the public schools' isn't exactly an inspirational rallying cry."

Finally, though, after years of suffering in the educational equivalent of the Sahara Desert, Michigan seems to be opening up to water and growth for students -- or at least the idea of them.

Lobbyists on both sides of the aisle are exploring taking more responsibility for their own work, and thinking about how student achievement should become more of a priority.

In Lansing groups such as MAPSA, the Michigan Association of Public School Academies -- the state's
powerful political lobbyists on behalf of charter schools -- long have fought to lift the state's cap on new charter schools, regardless of their schools' success. Now it says quality should be more carefully considered in that equation.

Smart growth
Think smart growth for schools. MAPSA is among the state's education power brokers exploring a strong idea: a "smart cap" for charter schools. Such a cap could be done in many different ways, but the overall goal is worthwhile: supporting the creation of proven, excellent charter schools for children who need them -- and squashing the bad ones, either through closings or limiting their expansion, or ideally, both.

"There's a growing realization that the real issue here is quality," says Doug Ross, the leader of Detroit's University Prep Academy network of schools, whose charter group will explore partnering with the Detroit Public Schools on school turnarounds. "If you have high quality, the quantity will follow."

Hopeful shift
This is a fundamental shift, and a hopeful one. And it's not just happening on the generally Republican, pro-charter side of the political spectrum.

A growing number of state Democrats such as Rep. Tim Melton, D-Pontiac, are rightfully looking at charters as a solution -- or helpful threat -- to push Michigan's worst public schools to do better. Melton is from Pontiac, where the high schools' student achievement records are so awful, some of their scores are actually lower than Detroit's.

We do tragedy well in our urban schools -- and it is criminal.

School districts such as Pontiac and Benton Harbor need miracle workers to come in and clean up their failing schools just as Robert Bobb is doing in Detroit. These children shouldn't have to go to classes in virtual cesspools.

Bobb, Detroit Public Schools' emergency financial manager, realizes exceptional charter operators should play a role in Detroit, too. Bobb confirmed Thursday he is considering charters as potential reform partners in overhauling chronically failing public schools, and opening strong new ones under the DPS umbrella.

This is nothing less than extraordinary in Detroit, where many circles have treated the word "charters" has been treated much like a cuss word.

Now it looks as though Detroit Mayor Dave Bing may use that disdain -- and legitimate concern over many Detroit charter schools' poor track records -- to leverage public support for mayoral control over the Detroit Public Schools.

If you missed it, a Bing Twitter page posted a curious statement on June 15 on www.twitter.com/davebing: "I think it would be smart for the state to give my office control over Detroit Public Schools since privatization has failed and again."

Mayor-controlled charters?
That's a clever argument. Lots of Detroiters don't like charter schools, even the better ones, because they drain resources away from traditional public schools, which increasingly serve the city's most vulnerable children. The district's percentage of special education, learning disabled and English as a Second Language students continues to rise, presenting education innovators with a truly troubling policy problem.

Bing's staff said last week it didn't post the controversial Tweet, adding the new mayor's official stance on mayoral control (summed up by "I leave it up to voters") hasn't changed.

Those of us who follow educational news were left confused. Bing's staff said it wasn't Bing's Twitter page that posted the statement, but it sure looked like Bing's Twitter page. His staff also didn't deny any of the other Bing Tweets (such as "Go Red Wings!") on the site were illegitimate. If Bing has an imposter out there, he's doing a good job.

Regardless of who posted the Tweet, one has to think Bing has education plans. After all, the new mayor has hired a well-respected, high-level advisor on education, Sue Carnell, to be on his staff -- and he wouldn't need her if he didn't plan to do something with the schools. Look for more on how he'll handle this politically sensitive issue in the coming months.

Wouldn't it be ironic if in time, Bing assumed mayoral management of public school district (a great thing) that included a number of charter schools through an anti-charter campaign?

Whoever posted the Tweet, change is a-percolating on the education front this summer.

What remains to be seen: whether those changes will make student achievement -- the whole purpose of public education -- their top priority.