The governor-appointed emergency manager who was put in charge of Muskegon Heights public schools decided to privatize the schools, fire the teachers, and hire a for-profit charter operator, Mosaica.
The governor and his rightwing allies are certain that a for-profit corporation will succeed where public education failed. You might say that Govermor Rick Snyder is following Andy Smarick’s belief that you can’t improve low-performing schools, you have to close them down and start over with new management.
So far, the Muskegon Heights takeover has been a disaster. Michigan Public Radio has been running a series about Muskegon Heights and learned that at least 25% of the newly hired staff left before the end of the first semester. The students are reacting to the turmoil by constantly testing their teachers, which makes it harder for the teachers to control their classes and harder for students to learn, as teachers come and go.
The company claims it had only 60 days to start up the school and that it hired the “best” teachers. But more likely the best teachers were not applying for a job in an impoverished district that pays $35,000 a year.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I agree with Dr. Ravitch that hireing and retaining the best teachers would require a higher salary. Talented teachers have many other employment opportunities.
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I don’t believe in bonuses tied to test scores.
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No they don’t. There are a ton of great teachers out of work today.
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Yes, especially in Michigan. They have huge pools of unemployed teachers.
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Dr. Ravitch, I never said you did believe in bonuses tied to test scores. I was agreeing with your statement that the salaries offered were too low to attract and retain talented teachers. Am I misinterpreting what you said?
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We agree. Teaching should pay more.
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Just one of many things we agree on.
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It’s not only higher salaries it is also the need for great benefits. You have to give a person an incentive to show up for work everyday in a district that is a rough place to work. Also, charters are notorious for providing few supplies and very little support for teachers.
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WHY are we surprised by this?
WHY aren’t parents sitting in Snyder’s Lansing office?
WHY do citizens continue to vote/advocate party lines when their elected leaders are anything but?
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I’ve never understood why the parents in these areas haven’t done more to stop the takeovers of their schools. It seems to be very easily done in poor areas.
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Because the schools that they replaced were often unimaginably bad in their own way. While it seems like a huge step down to us, to them it is just more of the shit served by the state.
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Why do politicians continue to think that they wave a political wand and cure education? Education begins at home. The problems in Muskegon Heights begin with the poverty, family dynamics, and economic down fall, not just the schools. You can hire the best teachers and staff, but if you do not reach out to the families and parents, the 8-3:00 time frame is not enough. If Snyder wants to help Muskegon, create jobs there, clean up the neighborhoods, give the people the tools to find and maintain employment. Give them hope and then they can share it at home.
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Muskegon Heights’ for-profit charter won’t be hiring the “best” teachers at $35,000 a year.
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So true! Perhaps a few desperate newbies.
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I don’t necessarily want to add an emotional angle to this very well observed and written post on the crisis in the Muskegon Heights public schools, but I may be able to offer a little perspective. The problems in the Heights have a long history. I was a student at Edgewood Elementary in Muskegon Heights thirty years ago and even a generation ago things were terribly wrong. As students, we were regularly physically and verbally assailed by our teachers. Not every teacher menaced students, but so many did that the situation was often unbearable. The sewers system routinely backed up into the school and we lived with the stench. Could it be that the state Emergency Manager’s appointment of this company had to do with Michigan’s desperation with historically impoverished and mismanaged districts? Communities like Muskegon Heights and Benton Harbor are examples of forgotten towns trying to be course corrected after generations of neglect. Sadly, these towns present an “up the down staircase” situation for teachers and corporate instructors may be the only ones left who will teach in these districts.
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Andrew, that is a sad remembrance of neglect. The state has a constitutional obligation to maintain a public education system, not to privatize it. The state should be sued.
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You are right. But you have also been around long enough to know that it is far from uncommon in many urban districts. This has been going on for decades. I’m constantly amazed that people act surprised that these parents are desperate enough to try charters. Things have been bad for 40 years or more and no one has helped them yet. Why wouldn’t they try something new?
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Umm, where’s our friend Terry F to explain why this state of affairs is better than those “failing” union schools?
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He/She’s probably at Walmart, spending her free gift cards courtesy of Student Last.
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He or she issues the gift cards. Students last employees troll for
Michelle…what else are they going to do?
Order books for schools, help with homework, babysit so parents can attend meetings? Why in the world would they help children?
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Right on cue.
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BTW, not that you’re really serious about doing SOMETHING, but wouldn’t reducing poverty be a better something to do than stealing from the public pot?
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But, Dienne, focusing on poverty issues is just so darn hard. It’s so much easier to blame those pesky union teachers, skim public funds, and pretend the new pretend charter school is super wonderful. Insanity in action!
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It is indeed very very hard to reduce poverty.
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Which is why it is easy to blame teachers…If every student had a great teacher, there would be no poverty…didn’t you get the SF memo, TE?
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Tt hank you for posting this, Dianne. Muskegon Heights is the first all-charter school district in the state, possibly the nation. It is already a proven failure. The response of the for-profit company, Mosaica, is to cover up and hide what is really going on. Lindsey Smith deserves great credit for this expose which aired on Michigan Radio. It took great courage for her. Everyone needs to be aware of this situation.
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So let’s pay the teachers less and give them bad working conditions so they can do a better job. (!)
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Someone here commented that the schools in urban areas have been troubled for many years, which is true. Now that these have been identified as troubled schools, we should be putting forth true solutions to the challenges of educating children in poverty. The problem is that it is expensive. There is no way around it. The cheap solutions have been tried and are ineffective. Now is the time to promote good, research-based solutions: Low class sizes, school social workers, nurses, librarians, parental outreach in ALL schools of poverty would be a good start. Those are the solutions we should be promoting.
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I have tried to find a way to contact media outlets that would want to spread the word on the Mosaica mess. I have a friend who worked in Muskegon Hghts this year but found it ridiculous to continue and is better off subbing in public schools. He, along with others there, could provide numerous outrageous examples of incompetence and violations of law. If there’s a way to let Rachael Maddow, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert or Michael Moore know about this it would make for a sad, but sobering wake up for Michigan citizens and voters.
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