Detroit teacher Shalon Miller wonders why separate and unequal is okay in Michigan in 2016. She describes the horrendous conditions in the schools. How can children learn in such conditions?
Miller writes:
“Since I have been at Cody, I have taught in horrible conditions. Classrooms have old, drafty windows that are poorly insulated. In some rooms, we have to wear winter coats in class until lunch time. In other rooms, it can be ridiculously hot. Both temperature conditions are extremely distracting to the educational process. It’s hard for kids to concentrate when their hands are freezing or they’re sweating profusely. When it rains, water leaks into the classrooms from the roof. We have had to place buckets under the leaks and pray for dry weather. Unfixed structural damage causes water-soaked tiles to frequently fall from the ceiling of classrooms. The carpet has an ever-present moldy smell.
“These conditions are a slap to each and every student, teacher and other school employee. Combined with the other dilapidated school buildings and inferior learning conditions, they are a slap to the entire city of Detroit.”
Last year, community partners stepped in to ameliorate the worst of the problems. Yet there is high teach her turnover as teachers leave for suburban schools with greater resources and stability.
Miller writes:
“Sometimes I feel hopeless. I wonder why people who have the power over our schools don’t care about my students. I wonder why my students are left in the worst conditions possible. I wonder why it’s the same problem in urban communities across America. Why is separate and unequal okay in 2016?
“Gov. Rick Snyder and the governor-appointed emergency manager for Detroit schools can say they understand our frustration, but simply saying they understand and then throwing their hands up in air isn’t good enough.
“I say, enough is enough. It’s not okay to tell 47,000 kids that they’re not important enough to warrant decent educational environments. It’s not okay to have beautiful suburban schools in the state of Michigan and let Detroit schools rot. It’s not okay to ignore the community’s plea for help. It’s not okay to disrespect teachers by refusing to give them a pay raise in over a decade. It’s not okay to take control of Detroit schools and let things go from bad to worse.”
Governor Snyder controls the public schools of Detroit. He likes accountability. When will he be held accountable?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You’d think the Waltons would rush in to help the kids, right? No money in fixing public schools; better to close them and open for profit charters. Period. That’s the reform way. Its so sad.
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How much has Governor snider cut from corporate taxes?
At the time it was approved, the 2011 tax code re-write was projected to save businesses $1.6 billion annually by 2013, mostly by repealing the oft-derided Michigan Business Tax.
It was also projected to boost individual income tax collections by $1.4 billion, mostly by reducing earned income and homestead credits while phasing out and scaling back a long-standing exemption on pension income.
http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/09/post_31.html
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“That helps generate more jobs, and that’s the fairer answer,” said Snyder.”
Facts not in evidence that tax cuts “generate more jobs”. They all say it, including Obama and Clinton.
There is absolutely nothing that guarantees “business” will plow tax cut savings into “more jobs”. It’s just nonsense. They start at A “tax cuts” and go directly to D- “more jobs!”
Anyone could do this to justify anything. A causes D by proclamation.
It’s such a shame to watch the Great Lakes states turn into Alabama. It’s race to the bottom all the way down.
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There is a race to the top—for the wealthiest 1% where higher and more is never enough, and to achieve this goal, the other 99% are being shoved off of a cliff to fall to the bottom where they will be crushed one way or the other.
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Why? Why are people around the world, mostly Muslims, being murdered by U.S. drones? Why are Flint, Michigan children being poisoned? Why are so many Black men in U.S. prisons for non-violent crimes? Why are fossil fuels still being burned? Why are war profiteers so happy that the War OF Terror is endless (but soooo lucrative)? Why has Obama, the Nobel “Peace” Laureate wasting tens of billions of dollars upgrading the omnicidal U.S. nuclear arsenal when the U.S. already has thousands of nuclear weapons? Why has Exxon spent millions sponsoring climate change denial when it knew in the 1970s that climate change was real and threatening?
Because our “leaders” in politics and business are dangerous sociopaths who should be arrested and put away for life, but never will be in a morally corrupt econoomic-political system known as U.S. global capitalism which has distorted U.S. “democracy” beyond recognition.
The system is not merely rotten. It is murderous.
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Amen, Ed.
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’cause he’s mean, nasty, and nuts, and is bought and sold.
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Better question is why these guys keep getting elected.
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A. Gerrymandering Oligarch Party
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Proposition A was supposed to level the field of education funding but ever since the State and especially Snyder got control of the funds he’s been raiding it give tax breaks to his buddies in big business.
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It’s even worse than you think; Democracy Now has these two segments:
Detroit Student: “I Want to Be Able to Go to School Without Worrying About Being Bitten by Mice”
https://t.co/9F984RC5G8
“a 17-year process dismantling DPS,eroding its capacity for education, for service in this community”
https://t.co/EOq1L4vP8e
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And the comments on the WAPO article are full of vindictive hatred for the people caught up in this political malfeasance.
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And of course, teachers’ unions. Because it’s the unions’ fault that the district and state criminally underfund these schools.
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I’d like to suggest that Gov Snyder, his legislature, the state school board, the local school boards, and anyone else he can get would donate their time to cleaning up each and every school building in that state if it is on need of repair. Don’t hire someone, do it yourselves.
If every state would deal honestly with the deplorable conditions of urban schools in this way, it would go a long way to alleviate the health issues and learning environment, as x well as the morale, in these schools.
It has been a life of complacency and indifference that has led to these conditions. They need to get off their rearends and fix the problems rather than shrug them off. I’d say rather than sweep them under the rug, but these guys are too lazy.
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It’s not just urban schools that are in such sad states of neglect. My 30 year teaching career (so far) has found me in 3 different public high schools. These are in rural areas of MA. The conditions in these schools are close to what I am seeing in the Detroit schools. Non-existent ventilation, winter coats worn in the classroom, black, smelly mold running down the walls in numerous leaks, rampant respiratory illnesses. The union does nothing. The public health dept does nothing. If it costs tax money to fix it, then it won’t be fixed.
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While the conditions in my school aren’t as bad as some of the pictures shown of Detroit, my school is pretty bad, too. Particularly my “portable” classroom–a fully metal trailer. It is hot in the summer and cold in the winter, there are broken and stained ceiling tiles and light fixtures, leaky windows, and a broken rain gutter. The district insists that the black substance in the windows isn’t mold, but I dont’ know what it is. My personal favorite is that the walls are carpeted. What a fire hazard! There is also the on-going weird smell, which no one can identify, and the stairs up to the classroom, which are punched metal that can rip a person to shreds if one falls on it (I would know), and the difficulty of kids with injuries to get into the classroom.
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TOW
Carpeted walls are not only a fire hazard but also act as a substrate for mold growth.
Check behind them. I bet you will find black mold there (especially if the windows and roof are leaking) which would account for the weird smell — certainly enough to close down a building in most states (though I’m not sure about Utah)
A very unhealthy environment, to say the least.
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Good idea, Some DAM Poet. I will do so. Thanks for the suggestion.
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I’m sure other teachers must have dreams (really nightmares) involving school.
One of the ones I’ve had repeatedly is being late to class, and my feet are stuck in what feels like a giant glue trap….like those sticky pads used to catch rodents. The bell is ringing, I know I’m late, yet I’m struggling with all my might to just pick my feet up off the floor. Or, there was the nightmare one time when I was assigned to the football field to teach history and it was a blizzard and the students were sitting up on the bleachers, obviously not listening. I wake up and, you know, it’s the usual, wow, what a relief that was only a dream.
But what’s been happening in these schools in Detroit are REAL, LIVING NIGHTMARES ….and they are far worse than anything that’s been conjured up in my subconscious, that’s for sure. And, they are waking nightmares not just for the educators but the kids! What a national disgrace.
When I’m having a bad day in school I sometimes think about the posts I’ve seen on this blog and I think, my God, I’ve been lucky -despite some of the bizarre nonsense I’ve had to deal with in my career.
But, of course, the stone, cold reality, folks, is that many of us teachers could end up in the very same sort of horrendous conditions that people in Detroit face. Because, like the author says, so many of the people in power in this country just don’t care about our children.
What a great piece of writing, Shalon Miller.
In her first line, Shalon says, ” I love being a teacher in Detroit Public Schools, challenges and all.” And, she ends up noting, “This year, I decided it was time to fight harder for my students.” Amazing.
Your students and our country are lucky, no honored, to have someone like you, Ms. Miller, working on our behalf. Thank you.
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Might have something to do with the color of the kids in your building. Or the money (or lack thereof) in their parents’ bank accounts. Or a combination of both.
In my younger days I did a lot of volunteering with Chicago Cares. They used to (and maybe still do – haven’t volunteered in a long time) have a lot of projects involving painting and fixing up CPS schools and building playgrounds. I did a number of those projects and always got that warm fuzzy feeling from having “done good”. Until I stopped and wondered whether Hinsdale and Glencoe have to rely on volunteer organizations to fix up their schools….
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Thank you for volunteering. About 15 years ago my school was one that got painted. While waiting with my son to start (I was one of the few teachers who painted that Saturday), started a conversation with the volunteers, including SENAtOR DICK DURBIN. No press, just painting and cleaning. That is the value of volunteering, show your integrity and let’s the public know what’s going on in the communities.
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Welcome to Education 2016— Why there is no national movement of parents to sue their towns and states for the deplorable physical conditions of the schools, I will never understand.
Where is the AFT ? Where is the NEA? Why are you not supporting the fight for decent conditions in buildings for your teachers, at least? Too busy planning your Christmas/ End of Year parties and national conventions?????
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Toni,
The AFT and the NEA support the reform agenda.
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Perhaps that’s true of the leadership of the nationals. It sure the heck isn’t true of the members at the local level.
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Have you heard of the UFT Christine? Mulgrew is in bed with Break the Public School Monopoly Cuomo.
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One of my major complaints about the (now) status quo ed reform agenda is how scattered it is- they seem to throw money into every ed reformers pet project and it’s such a wide range of projects that there isn’t any focus or persistence.
What if there were or had been a narrow focus in each place (city or state) on real needs? In Detroit it would be facility repaid and upgrades. In another city is might be something else, but FOCUSED, where it would make a real difference to every public school student.
If you go back and look at Eli Broad’s investment in Detroit a lot of it went toward “blended learning” and hiring new people. That just seems insane to me when the facilities are falling apart. It seems crazily out of touch with reality.
RttT is the same way- investment in a series of currently fashionable experiments that clearly represent the various political/policy factions in ed reform. I don’t want to pay for that. It isn’t how I see “public investment in a public entity”.
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I don’t know if you-all saw this, but the (regional) EPA administrator resigned in connection with the Flint water crisis.
I’m no fan of Governor Snyder, but people should (also) ask why they federal regulator didn’t act on Flint’s failure to treat for corrosion. The big federal environmental laws- Clean Water, Clean Air, have real teeth. They can be enforced.
It’s absolutely fair to ask the Obama Administration why they weren’t enforced.
The federal government has to act as the “regulator of last resort”. They have to step in, as here, where the emergency manager failed and then the state failed.
Why didn’t they act when they knew Flint was out of compliance on corrosion? They have the power to shut the thing down.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-epa-resignation-flint-water-20160121-story.html
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These are the type of actions that cause people to lose faith in government agencies. What is the point of passing laws and setting standards if no one enforces them? Why do governors get away with short changing urban schools and ignoring court orders. If no one enforces anything, it gives state leaders the license to do as they please and makes them more prone to corruption. State leaders would be more likely to follow the rules if they knew there were negative consequences for failure to do so.
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Thanks for the link Chiara!
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“The emergency order EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy issued Thursday acknowledges the state notified EPA officials in April 2015 that Flint was not treating the river water with additives to prevent corrosion from pipes. It says Hedman and others in the regional EPA office voiced concern to state and city officials over the next few months.”
We just see this over and over and over. Regulators refuse to regulate. It’s like they’re afraid no one will like them if they’re adversarial. They’re SUPPOSED to be adversarial. That’s part of their job.
I don’t know what it is- corruption or capture or just an ideological lean towards NOT regulating but regulation isn’t supposed to be friendly and lovey-dovey. If they’re out of compliance it’s not a negotiation, it’s law enforcement.
What is the point of having regulators if they have decided they won’t regulate, ever?
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Here’s a indication that changing the water in Flint wasn’t about saving money:
“By Steve Neavling
Motor City Muckraker
The Flint water crisis that led to thousands of people being poisoned began because state officials maintained it would save the cash-strapped city money by disconnecting from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) and using a different source.
But it turns out, DWSD offered the state-controlled city a deal that would have saved Flint more money by staying with Detroit.”
http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2016/01/23/gov-snyder-lied-flint-water-switch-was-not-about-money-records-show/
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Thanks for the link Christine!
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DFER makes villainthropist contributions to ed. deform candidates easy, at the “DFER List -Dollars for Ed. Reform” web page. Their candidates for city council, mayor, school board, state bd. of education, state house and senate and U.S. House and Senate are identified, by state.
The DFER page encourages big donations, by providing a single tab, “Max Out”. This is an example of plutocrats buying our elections.
More than a 100 organizations, representing the people, are holding a rally, “Democracy Awakening.org” ,in April, in D.C.
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And then we have charter schools buildings not owned by taxpayers on the beach.
http://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/education/2016/01/23/charter-schools-cost-taxpayers-produce-mixed-results/79070036/
Let’s see—stats from the 2014-15 Florida School Grades Simulation.
Pensacola Beach Elementary only 19% minority rate and 1% free or reduced lunch.
Beulah Academy of Science only 28% minority rate and 20% free or reduced lunch.
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I swear those who keep saying teachers and schools must be held accountable are so very often reliving their hatred of some past teacher and just hoping whatever harms they wish to throw at the schools will somehow take out just the sort of teacher they remember with such anger.
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Or, simple greed is driving the exploiters (a synonym for reformers).
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Deplorable and even worse:
“President Obama was in Detroit hailing the success of the auto industry.”
Did he visit Detroit schools? Flint (just recently). Hail to the Chief. I voted for BO for the record. Please do not tell me he did not know about both situations before his historic too late to the game visit.
Maybe Flint will be able to use $1B of the $8B in aid to rebuild pipes – we are being denied basic human dignities and it’s all our taxpaying dollars – going to EdRemorsters. Ugh, done (for the night). I am so sorry for the taxpaying MI public and the US as a whole to have to deal with shoddy and corrupt “appointed” and elected officials.
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