Is Detroit Public Schools worth saving? Charter process sparks debate

[Wesley Mouch]

http://www.mackinac.org/7556

Why do you think the people of Detroit are so angry that the state took over again? Of the six years that the state had taken over previously, five of them they overspent funds. The reasoning for the takeover was " test scores were low and not enough kids were graduating," but anybody can graduate kids who aren't ready to succeed outside of high school and that's exactly what they did. Grad rates became higher, but test scores pretty much stayed subpar. Obviously, when the state took over last time and tanked the budget, the newspaper wasn't very eager to get that story out. They just happened to neglect that story again after this state takeover. The school board that resumed duties after the takeover was incompetent and was an easy scapegoat for the sinking ship that it inherited.

I read the article. Thank you for the source.

Did not reach same conclusions you did. Sounds like the results were mixed. Finances stayed a mess. Some scores improved. Math tanked. I do not see it as a disaster.

Why were Detroiter's [[myself as well at the time) upset? Beats me. System was messed up before, messed up during, and obviously messed up after. Let's blame the State, not ourselves. If they had stayed away, everything would have been perfect.

[Schoolcraft]

I read the article. Thank you for the source.

Did not reach same conclusions you did. Sounds like the results were mixed. Finances stayed a mess. Some scores improved. Math tanked. I do not see it as a disaster.

Why were Detroiter's [[myself as well at the time) upset? Beats me. System was messed up before, messed up during, and obviously messed up after. Let's blame the State, not ourselves. If they had stayed away, everything would have been perfect.

Finances did not stay a mess Wesley... they became a mess. When the state took over the schools had a budget surplus of $90 million. When they left, the deficit was more than double that.

I never once said that anything was perfect with the district before or after the takeovers... but what I am saying is what another poster above said, which is the state is not taking any responsibility for the help in the demise of the schools... and the media, local and national, refuses to tell that side of the story. For 5-6 years the state did an abysmal job with the schools and it took about two years after that horrible job for the state to decide they were the best persons for the job again. Everybody is to blame here, one side is getting the blame.

[Wesley Mouch]

...Everybody is to blame here, one side is getting the blame.

There I see your point.

I would suggest that they are not 'sides' however. One is the appropriate authority who isn't making it work, and the other is a supervising authority reluctantly stepping in where it really shouldn't, and shouldn't have to.