WSWS: Parents, students, teachers speak out against Detroit school closures

[tonysam]

Not that they have any real power, of course:

At town hall meetings last week, Detroit parents and teachers denounced plans by Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb to close 44 schools and implement other cuts as part of his school reorganization plan. Bobb’s plan will mean the elimination of at least 1,500 jobs of school employees.

The town hall meetings were the first in a series announced by Bobb. The meetings are being poorly publicized and tightly managed. Speakers are preselected, with each school allowed only 20 minutes to make its case to avoid the axe.

There has been an obtrusive police presence at all the town hall meetings, lending an air of intimidation. Those attending have to walk through metal detectors and have their handbags searched.

...

Bobb is working closely with a group of wealthy philanthropic organizations to replace the closed schools with a network of private and semi-private charter schools that would open the door to drastic cuts in salaries and benefits for teachers and the elimination of seniority rights and work rules.

WSWS

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Are you posting this over in the "news" forums as well?

This needs wide coverage.

And since it involves major corporations, you could even post it over in the Stock Market Watch thread, which is VERY left-friendly. :D Hey, they even like ME over there!


K&R


Tansy Gold

[sandnsea]

2. Excellent Schools Detroit

http://www.excellentschoolsdetroit.org/

Only 3 percent of Detroit’s 4th graders and 4 percent of its 8th graders meet national math standards; experts say that Detroit students could have done about the same if they’d just guessed on the test. Only 2 percent of the city’s high school students are prepared for college-level math and 11 percent for college-level reading.

We believe every student should be able to attend an excellent school. We have constructed a set of strategies to get us there faster than any other urban area. For example:

Create high standards for all city schools and pre-K programs by creating an independent Citywide Standards and

Accountability Commission to shine the spotlight on high-quality programs and call out low-quality ones.

Publish easy-to-read annual report cards to help parents become “smarter school shoppers” and help all citizens hold programs accountable for results.

Help coordinate and speed the opening of 40 new schools by 2015 and 70 new schools by 2020.

Keep the heat on DPS, charter authorizers, and independent school trustees to make way for better school programs by closing failing ones.

Give our students access to the best school leaders and teachers in the city, region, and country through an ambitious recruitment and development campaign.

Build public support for making the mayor accountable for Detroit Public Schools. DPS needs unified authority to take the tough steps required to save the city’s largest school system from losing more students.

Strengthen city-school-community partnerships that support children, through “community schools” that stay open evenings and weekends and offer health clinics, mental health services, counseling services, adult literacy, and other programs that support children and their families.

[Name removed]

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[Hannah Bell]

10. "it can't be pointed out". - why is that, ms tetris? it can be insinuated, but not pointed out?

au contraire, mon sere. please, do "point out" whatever nasty thing you're insinuating.

if you can insinuate, you can damn well point out.

[Hannah Bell]

7. well, there's a neutral source! go right to the thieves' PR releases, that's the ticket.

[Tansy_Gold]

9. And they're gonna do all this AND SHOW A PROFIT!

You know what they say about "If it sounds too good to be true. . . ."



It's a come-on, and they're reeling in all the desperate suckers, all those who see the bait but not the hook.

They aren't offering solutions to the rampant poverty, the unemployment, the lack of opportunities. Those, as much as anything, are the root causes for poor school performance. The "schools" are just buildings, and even the administration is merely functions. The real product any school produces are the students, and when you fill a classroom with kids who are scared (and it doesn't matter what they're scared by), hungry (even a little bit hungry), sick (with an infected tooth or intreated asthma or undiagnosed diabetes), cold ('cause it's 10 below and if they keep thermostat at home set at 50 then they can maybe pay off the fuel oil bill by June), tired (after workin' half the night for three bucks an hour under the table but it's enough for. . . whatever) -- c'mon, do you REALLY think city-school-community partnerships are gonna fix that?

It sounds good. It sounds sooooooo good. And so many people want it to BE good, but wanting don't make it so. And short term moderate gains that produce horrendous long term losses are not good things at all.




Tansy Gold, who knows she's being watched and posts just the same :hi:

[sandnsea]

11. Detroit Edison Public School Academy

A non-profit school developed in 1998 in conjunction with Oakland University, teaches 1100 student. This is one of the model schools they would like to replicate across Detroit.

http://www.detroitedisonpsa.org/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=901&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-2304


There are other models that go beyond academics and provide meals, take home snacks, medical care, school supplies, clothes and family outreach.

Schools taught poor kids when there was only wood or coal for heat and kids were eating noodles and cabbage. I think we can manage it now with free breakfasts and lunches, free clinics, and all the other programs we have for kids.

[Fire1]

3. Thanks tonysam for posting this. Lots in Sunday's paper, too.

I wasn't too interested in attending. We all pretty much know what the rhetoric will be. Besides, I'm retiring in June and enjoying my Easter/Spring break!!! YA HOOO!!!!! LOL!!!

edit: Spelling

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. They offered a $20K incentive to retirees here

If you were interested you had to be at a meeting tonight at 6pm. At 4:30 there were already 200 people there.

[noamnety]

13. The police presence might be the norm

I did a presentation at a Detroit school Board meeting a few years back and we had to go through metal detectors then, and police were lining the perimeter of the auditorium.

I think the metal detectors and police are standard in a number of Detroit schools. I found it interesting that the author described it as an "air of intimidation." And I would agree - I found it intimidating, and came back to my school telling tales about it. If it's intimidating for adults to be in that atmosphere, how much more intimidating is it for our children to be in that atmosphere?

More importantly, what are the long-term psychological effects on the children in Detroit who aren't just there for a board meeting, but are being raised in an authoritarian intimidating atmosphere 5 days a week?

[mzteris]

14. too bad you can't have the truth deleted.

you can try - but it's still there for all to see.