BY STEPHEN HENDERSON

DETROIT FREE PRESS EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

In Snyder's ideal, all schools in Detroit would be created around sets of individual principles and ideas, by committed groups of educators, parents, community groups and whoever else wants to create them. They'd all be "charter schools," in the sense that they'd be constituted around the models they chose. But they'd be held accountable for student performance.

Some might be existing public schools with records of excellence, or poor-performing public schools reorganized under a new concept. Some could be schools created under the state's charter school law.

They'd have remarkable freedom to implement their models, to try new things, make adjustments, pursue innovation. But the key is that they'd be held accountable for student performance. The public schools and the ones chartered through the school district would be held accountable by a local governance structure that could be vastly restructured.

And the schools operating under the state's charter law would answer to the state.

Snyder says his education reform plan, announced last month, will get tough with schools that operate under the state's charter law, and impose the same standards of performance on them as other schools. And when they don't perform?

"They can lose their charters," he said.

This is what Snyder means when he talks about creating a "system of schools," rather than a school system in Detroit. He's describing a system that's focused much more on results and accountability than on governance. And it's a system that would not look much like what the city has now.
Complete story at: http://www.freep.com/article/2011060...ls-offers-hope