Excellent points English. I heard last summers class were a mess as well.
Quote Originally Posted by English View Post
Yes, I understand the financial situation. However, summer school was not free in DPS as recently as 4-5 years ago. There was NO money for it when I taught in Detroit four summers in a row. I also taught summer school in the 'burbs -- students had to pay there as well.

This is how it worked: Students and their parents paid tuition. I can't remember the rates. The administrators always made it clear that summer school had to be self-supporting. If we did not get the prerequisite student enrollment, we could not run that particular class. There were even higher rates available for out-of-district students... one young lady in my English 9 summer school class was from the Lincoln Consolidated Schools.

Some of my veteran DPS educator buddies were very critical of the free summer schools in '09. When I taught summer school from 2000-2004, we got kids from all over the city who might have been rough around the edges, but who were willing to do what they hadn't during the school year. In '09, several of my teacher buddies told me that they were getting a population of bored troublemakers who weren't really interested in the credits or the remediation. When that shooting happened last year, they were furious.

This is NOT about the kids. This is about an unwillingness to seek productive solutions on the part of the emergency financial manager AND the elected school board. There isn't a noble side in this. I have been supportive of some of Bobb's actions, but this makes no sense.