Marcie Lippsett writes about the bipartisan failure to save Detroit. The public schools of Detroit, like those of Muskegon Heights and Highland Park, have been put under the unilateral rule of an Emergency Manager appointed by the governor. In the latter two districts, the public schools were abolished, and the children were given to a for-profit charter chain. In Detroit, public education is being privatized and snuffed out with all deliberate speed. All of these districts are majority black, which perhaps made it easier to eliminate self-rule. Among those in power, no one cared, and no one heard those who did care.
Marcie writes:
“Detroit Public Schools like all of Detroit, died in the Riots of 1967. I am 53 years old and have watched (not in silence) this Apocalypse and loss of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Detroit is a complete bipartisan failure of leadership at the local, state and federal level. And while former Governor Engler and current Governor Rick Snyder have willfully moved the devastation along, former Governors Blanchard and Granholm did not have the passion, or courage to make the rebuilding of Detroit and surrounding cities a priority. Detroit is the worst of the largest (dwindling) school districts across the U.S. but it is far from the worst in MI.
“Children in Muskegon Heights, Inkster, Flat Rock,Pontiac, Highland Park, River Rouge, Hamtramck, Lincoln Park, Southfield, Oak Park, Ferndale, Lapeer, Brandon, Avondale and Taylor have little reason to go to school. Then there are the students with IEPs and the students that we turn into the disabled and they really have no reason to attend school.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t know who Marcie Lipsett is, and you didn’t make it any easier by introducing her or providing a link, so I can’t speak to her credentials, but I just can’t take seriously anyone who says the following:
“Children in Muskegon Heights, Inkster, Flat Rock,Pontiac, Highland Park, River Rouge, Hamtramck, Lincoln Park, Southfield, Oak Park, Ferndale, Lapeer, Brandon, Avondale and Taylor have little reason to go to school. Then there are the students with IEPs and the students that we turn into the disabled and they really have no reason to attend school.”
On my blog, Ramona’s Voices, I’ve written many times in favor of public education, and have your site linked on my blogroll. I usually agree with what you’ve written, but I know kids who have graduated from some of the school districts listed and the notion that they have “little reason to go to school” has no bearing on reality whatsoever. What’s the solution then? Non-unionized schools? Charter schools? Private schools?
How about fighting hard to make public schools the best schools they can be? We obviously need to work at getting something done, and there is no doubt that Michigan’s kids need and deserve a good education, but this kind of hyperbole doesn’t do us any favors. All it does is give more ammunition to those whose main goal is privatizing schools, and their idea of a good education is the best that money can buy. It has nothing to do with kids.
And if you’re going to talk about “Detroit Schools” you might want to recognize that only two of those mentioned, Highland Park and Hamtramck, are within Detroit’s boundaries. None of the rest have any connection to Detroit.
Many of the schools Marcie mentioned are in the metro Detroit area. They receive many students from Detroit due to open enrollment. I’m not sure I’d put all of the districts mentioned in the same boat. Some are far worse than others. Highland Park and Muskegon got taken over by privatizers and are in rough shape right now.
Dee Dee, it just struck me as odd that anyone would say the kids in those districts had “little reason to go to school”. I’m pretty certain there are plenty of good, if frustrated, teachers who are trying their darnedest to provide a good education to the students in those districts Blanket statements like “little reason to go to school” are disheartening and insulting, and not every teacher deserves to be included in that kind of indictment.
Detroit moved beyond white flight to abandonment a long time ago. Very sad.
Detroit was essentially a “company town” on an epic scale. Before Henry Ford, it was a run-of-the-mill (no pun intended) American industrial town huddled on the side of a river. In just a couple decades it was a mega-city, and for a period it was the world capital of high technology. But it was all based on one industry dominated by three companies. So globalism happened, and the rest is history. However much the state and local government may have failed Detroit, and however slow the Big Three may have been to recognize what was happening to the industry, globalism would have happened. You cannot take a city of that scale, take away its entire economy, and expect to somehow “rebuild” it with good policy.
Being from Detroit, and having a father that enjoyed his unionized job with one of the Big Three (and enjoyed high wages for a menial job), I agree with your assessment. My father now talks about the renegotiated wages of people who are left, and that their wages and benefits have been severely cut.
This globalism sure has been lucrative – for the right people.
Actually, my last name is spelled “Lipsitt” but that’s okay! I am happy to have Diane post my comments and concerns no matter how my name is spelled!
Marcie, keep exposing the truth. I read you were fighting for the Special Ed, students in Muskegon. If you are involved in an activist group I’d suggest that your group begin digging up as much info. that you can in the charters around Detroit. Go one by one and look at their admin. fees and try to figure out how much money the CEOs are making above board and through other legal but shady ways. I still can’t believe a lot of this is legal. I jsut wish it would all be exposed for the public to see.
Not only did our state legislators abandon Detroit Public Schools, but are prepared to abandon all of us in public education around the state. They continue to push the agenda of corporate, for profit, and charter school interests, rather than the agenda of the public and the people they serve. The Center for Michigan, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization, surveyed Michigan citizens across the state, and presents a clear view of what the public wants to have happen in public schools. It’s not choice, it’s not charters, it’s not online learning. The public has it right! Will the legislature listen?
Read all about it here: http://cdn.thecenterformichigan.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Education_Report_FINAL.pdf
The dems and rats are almost the same party now considering that the same people fund a lot of it. You have to plan something this big that goes on for so long. Then you have to think about what kind of people would purposely plan something like this and what is going on around the world. If you think about it you might hurt your head.
Do your head a favor and stop thinking about it. There are a lot of big things that go on for a long time that aren’t “purposely planned” by “people.”
The Detroit metro area has many outstanding districts. Detroit and many of the others mentioned by Marcie are in economically depressed areas. The city of Detroit has many charters. The charter high schools are in no way superior to regular public schools. They often lack the facilities that a public school would have. No libraries, teachers hardly have any supplies, no tools to teach with, no drama depts., non-existant labs for chemistry and bio., underpaid staff (very difficult to keep staff when underpaid and minimal benefits along with lack of professional treatment), no bus system. This is what galls me about people claiming privatization is for the benefit of minority children. Civil rights issue? Yes, I’d say so. I’d say this generation of minority children has definately been ripped off by the privatization movement. How can anyone claim this was for the benefit of minority children? Just remember, the EMOs that are running the privatized schools are making a profit. How on earth could this be legal????
This is the trajectory Memphis schools appear to be heading, with the state-run Achievement School District and various charter schools expanding every year.
Heaven help you. Go read about the privatization of districts in Michigan. This will only make education in Memphis worse. This is just the same playbook implemented in state after state. It’s all about money and politics.
We have a large population more suited to an industrial economy. Yet we really don’t have an industrial economy anymore, and we live in a post-industrial society. These people in the inner cities are seen as “disposable” by the elites. These kids can join the military, work somewhere for minimum wage (if they are lucky) or turn criminal to fight over dwindling resources. Eventually this Blade Runner world will be everywhere with the rich living in walled-in complexes with private security, drones, etc. The vast majority of Americans (bottom 90%) will live in a kind of filthy, uneducated glop. The elite do not want to educate this 90%. It is far better to let them eat 1 dollar cheeseburgers and play video games, get fat, use facebook, etc. Full employment is never coming back, and now it is just a question of how we devolve. We need to face the truth about what is happening to America. Today it is happening in the urban cities, tomorrow the suburbs. Have you been to your local mall lately?
I just saw the movie, Searching for Sugar Man. It tells the story of Detroit singer Rodriguez, who was the most popular singer in South Africa for twenty years while they thought he was dead, and he had no idea. He was a house laborer in Detroit until he was found. It is one of the most amazing stories of modern times
Snider is determined to make public education in Michigan the education of last resort. He is farming education out to his buddies the charter school operators and stripping resources from the public schools setting public schools up for failure. Think about this folks if Snider has his way each year the bottom 5% of districts automatically get a state take over. Do the math people in 20 years, there will be no public education system in Michigan, u can thank the Republicans and Snider for screwing us all!