Shrinking City - Lessons from New Orleans

[BVos]

Here's an excellent article on shrinking cities that looks at how planning happened in the aftermath of Katrina after New Orleans. There are a lot of similarities between Detroit's recent shrinking initiative and the [[failed) proposal to shrink New Orleans after Katrina. Will Bing, the foundations and development groups make the same fatal errors?

http://places.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=12978

[casscorridor]

Governments, corporations and foundations use major crises as an opportunity to enact radical free market reforms. Detroit is very similar to New Orleans, that in a crisis situation very radical reforms are pushed through, such as in New Orleans the elimination of public housing and the dismantling of the public school system similar to what is happening here in Detroit. They use a "shock" such as a Hurricane or an economic collapse to enact their reforms, disregarding democracy and community control over resources.

What is happening in Detroit now, and what happened in New Orleans, is education being transformed into a commodity, traded on the market. Within five to ten years, 70% of Detroit students will attend charter schools [[a reverse of the current 30%). Instead of parents, teachers, students and community members having a say over the education, parents will act as consumers, and if they don't like a certain school they can go to another one, just as if one didn't like a certain type of toilet paper they could go get another one. Education will be turned over to the market. This means increased standardization, because low-performing schools will be closed, and only quantitative measurements are considered -- test scores [[as seen with the University Prep High School, which started out very participatory with students very involved in the process of learning and creating, but slowly became more standardized and test based). The schools will advertise their statistics, and qualitative information will take a back seat to quantitative test scores.

This is not good for education. Are we creating life-long learners, creators and citizens, or are we creating machines, where the only goal is to get the "right" answer?

[Detroitnerd]

What is happening in Detroit now, and what happened in New Orleans, is education being transformed into a commodity, traded on the market. ... This is not good for education. Are we creating life-long learners, creators and citizens, or are we creating machines, where the only goal is to get the "right" answer?

But you miss the main point. This arrangement will be much more PROFITABLE! And that seems to increasingly be the only barometer we care about in the United States anymore.

I mean, why PAY to have GOVERNMENT educate children? It's not profitable enough! Sure, they might come out better citizens and with better critical thinking skills. Sure, they might be so-called "better educated." Sure, all those people who worry that "Johnny can't read" might feel better knowing that the state is doing its best to help Johnny learn.

But what about America's businessmen? Why are we denying THEM a chance to make MONEY?

It's simple: First you take a school where teachers used to teach the old way. It took a lot of time and often didn't produce students who "tested well" anyway. So what we'll do is fire the teachers, close the schools, marginalize the unions, and give the whole system to a bunch of people who can use schools as their own personal cash machines.

Will the students learn better? Not really. In fact, underpaid teachers will be scrambling to prepare students for those all-important tests, so the school can use the money to market itself. Why, if we were to simply to end up paying a mere 200 or 300 percent of what we used to, we can take a dreary government program that did more or less what it was supposed to and turn it into a HIGHLY PROFITABLE MARKETPLACE! Instead of returning pop cans and bilking senior citizens out of their retirement checks, American businessmen can move into a new, moneymaking sector. That's much more modern and much better; don't you agree?

[bailey]

Governments, corporations and foundations use major crises as an opportunity to enact radical free market reforms. Detroit is very similar to New Orleans, that in a crisis situation very radical reforms are pushed through, such as in New Orleans the elimination of public housing and the dismantling of the public school system similar to what is happening here in Detroit. They use a "shock" such as a Hurricane or an economic collapse to enact their reforms, disregarding democracy and community control over resources.

What is happening in Detroit now, and what happened in New Orleans, is education being transformed into a commodity, traded on the market. Within five to ten years, 70% of Detroit students will attend charter schools [[a reverse of the current 30%). Instead of parents, teachers, students and community members having a say over the education, parents will act as consumers, and if they don't like a certain school they can go to another one, just as if one didn't like a certain type of toilet paper they could go get another one. Education will be turned over to the market. This means increased standardization, because low-performing schools will be closed, and only quantitative measurements are considered -- test scores [[as seen with the University Prep High School, which started out very participatory with students very involved in the process of learning and creating, but slowly became more standardized and test based). The schools will advertise their statistics, and qualitative information will take a back seat to quantitative test scores.

This is not good for education. Are we creating life-long learners, creators and citizens, or are we creating machines, where the only goal is to get the "right" answer?

All things considered, I think the worst case scenario as you described is more preferable to the status quo. If DPSs worst schools only problem was pumping out intellectually incurious students, I think it'd be a measure of success. At least they would be able to read, function in day to day society and likely not end up as permanent wards of the penal system.

Instead of parents, teachers, students and community members having a say over the education

Frankly the parents, teachers, and community members have clearly demonstrated they -as a whole- either do not care or clearly lack the ability to effectively run DPS. Why continue to defer to Reverend Murry's or Otis Mathis' model for how to run a school system?

[kathy2trips]

Since I'm very familiar with NOLA [[New Orleans, LA) , I'd also like to add that New Orleans has a big oil industry presence and oil is doing very well, thank you! This is a huge help. The offshore rigs are back on line and the refineries are humming.

[Detroitnerd]

Since I'm very familiar with NOLA [[New Orleans, LA) , I'd also like to add that New Orleans has a big oil industry presence and oil is doing very well, thank you! This is a huge help. The offshore rigs are back on line and the refineries are humming.

Glad to hear "Cancer Alley" is back at work.

[ndavies]

This is not good for education. Are we creating life-long learners, creators and citizens, or are we creating machines, where the only goal is to get the "right" answer?

You'd have an argument if the Detroit system were creating life long learners. However if you can't read or do basic math there is absolutely no way you can be a life long learner.

No one is talking about taking away the controls from school systems that work. Only school systems that aren't teaching students even the rudimentary skills to function in todays society.

These schemes were brought about due to the utter failure of those current school systems and boards. Boards more interested in protecting and enriching adults and their own pocket books than teaching students.

These schemes are being driven down due to the shear incompetence of the people currently in charge.

[Detroitnerd]

These schemes are being driven down due to the shear incompetence of the people currently in charge.

That's sort of funny.

[JBMcB]

This is not good for education. Are we creating life-long learners, creators and citizens, or are we creating machines, where the only goal is to get the "right" answer?

If the Detroit Public School system wasn't such a colossal and abject failure, in every sense of the word, you might have an argument.

As it is, every "reform" initiative in the last twenty or so years has done nothing to reverse the trend of the DPS churning out chronically under-performing students while racking up enormous deficits with zero accountability.

If a charter school system can consistently produce students that can perform basic tasks, such as reading and writing, it would be and enormous improvement over the status quo.

The DPS has had it's chance. It's had decades of chances, and more than enough money. It's a complete failure. Time to try something else. If the charter schools fail, kill their licenses and try something else.

[jmcguire39]

Governments, corporations and foundations use major crises as an opportunity to enact radical free market reforms. Detroit is very similar to New Orleans, that in a crisis situation very radical reforms are pushed through, such as in New Orleans the elimination of public housing and the dismantling of the public school system similar to what is happening here in Detroit. They use a "shock" such as a Hurricane or an economic collapse to enact their reforms, disregarding democracy and community control over resources.

What is happening in Detroit now, and what happened in New Orleans, is education being transformed into a commodity, traded on the market. Within five to ten years, 70% of Detroit students will attend charter schools [[a reverse of the current 30%). Instead of parents, teachers, students and community members having a say over the education, parents will act as consumers, and if they don't like a certain school they can go to another one, just as if one didn't like a certain type of toilet paper they could go get another one. Education will be turned over to the market. This means increased standardization, because low-performing schools will be closed, and only quantitative measurements are considered -- test scores [[as seen with the University Prep High School, which started out very participatory with students very involved in the process of learning and creating, but slowly became more standardized and test based). The schools will advertise their statistics, and qualitative information will take a back seat to quantitative test scores.

This is not good for education. Are we creating life-long learners, creators and citizens, or are we creating machines, where the only goal is to get the "right" answer?

Thank you Milton Friedman. Naomi Klein has a book called shock doctrine which describes the worldwide campaign to initiate Friedman's plans. Called for privatization of govt services, no taxes on the rich [[the true people of god), no safety net for the poor/working class. It was a complete and utter failure everywhere this fascism was implemented.

[bailey]

Thank you Milton Friedman. Naomi Klein has a book called shock doctrine which describes the worldwide campaign to initiate Friedman's plans. Called for privatization of govt services, no taxes on the rich [[the true people of god), no safety net for the poor/working class. It was a complete and utter failure everywhere this fascism was implemented.

Good thing detroit steered clear of that so far. Otherwise we wouldn't have the utopian Detroit of today.

[Jimaz]

The Shock Doctrine

[RickBeall]

The DPS was its own Katrina.

[DetroitDad]

This has been a foreshadowing of what is to come.

[Hermod]

Thank you Milton Friedman. Naomi Klein has a book called shock doctrine which describes the worldwide campaign to initiate Friedman's plans. Called for privatization of govt services, no taxes on the rich [[the true people of god), no safety net for the poor/working class. It was a complete and utter failure everywhere this fascism was implemented.

How is a decision to outsource a government service "fascism"?

Most of the administration of Medicare has been outsourced to private contractors and it works very well. Most government medical plans have outsourced prescription service to Express Scripts or Medco and those things work like a charm.

[royce]

What real differences exist between charter schools and DPS? Well, take a look at the following information. Out of 111 seventh-grade students that I teach Social Studies to at a DPS school, twelve read at a seventh-grade reading level or higher. Thirty six students read at or below the fourth-grade level. The lowest student reads at a 1.8 reading level. Do you think charter schools deal with these kinds of reading levels? If they do, how are they getting better results than DPS?

[laurin]

What real differences exist between charter schools and DPS? Well, take a look at the following information. Out of 111 seventh-grade students that I teach Social Studies to at a DPS school, twelve read at a seventh-grade reading level or higher. Thirty six students read at or below the fourth-grade level. The lowest student reads at a 1.8 reading level. Do you think charter schools deal with these kinds of reading levels? If they do, how are they getting better results than DPS?

And that's a key point. Charter schools don't have to accept every student. DPS does. Plus, charter schools tend to pull a different kind of student and parent. It's not an even playing field. The mentality changes a bit.

I once had a lady argue me down that dps was wrong to kick out students for fighting because it penalized their learning potential. However, she transferred her kids to a charter school because they were safer. Charter schools will kick that same kid out for fighting-- they don't have to keep the students. And where do the students go? Back to DPS.