Jan Resseger noted that the Colorado state board of education awarded a contract to MGT Consulting based on their “success” in turning around the public schools of Gary, Indiana. She shows in this post that there was no turnaround.
She writes:
Colorado state school board members praised MGT’s record in the so-called turnaround of the only whole school district it has managed—for the past two years—in Gary, Indiana. The fact that MGT Consulting, a for-profit, was praised for work in Gary caught my eye. I have been to Gary, just as I have been to Detroit, whose public schools have shared some problems with Gary’s. Detroit’s school district was assigned a state emergency fiscal manager by former Governor Rick Snyder; in fact Detroit’s school district was assigned an emergency manager named Darnell Earley after he left Flint, where, as municipal emergency fiscal manager, he had permitted the poisoning of the city’s water supply. Fortunately Detroit’s schools have been turned back to the democratically elected local school board, which hired a professional educator, Dr. Nikolai Vitti.
And I have been to the cities in Ohio now in state takeover, and being operated by appointed Academic Distress Commissions. I am thinking of Youngstown, which in four years under an Academic Distress Commission and appointed CEO, has not turned around. I am thinking of Lorain, where outright chaos has ensued under an Academic Distress Commission’s appointed CEO, David Hardy. And I am thinking of East Cleveland, whose schools are just beginning the state takeover process, and ten other Ohio school districts—including Dayton and Toledo—being threatened with state takeover.
All of these Rust Belt cities and their school districts are characterized by economic collapse. They are industrial cities where factories have closed and workers moved away to seek employment elsewhere. When industry collapses, the property tax base—the foundation of the local contribution of school funding—evaporates, and as workers lose jobs or leave, local income tax revenue collapses as well…
In July 2017, the state took over the school district in Gary and turned the schools over to a private, for-profit management company: MGT Consultants. MGT hired Peggy Hinkley, a retired school superintendent to run the schools, but she resigned a little more than a year later. The Post-Tribune‘s Carole Carlson describes Hinkley’s tenure: “Hinkley served 14 months and ruffled the feathers of some elected officials who criticized her decisions, especially the closing of the Wirt-Emerson School of Visual and Performing Arts. When Wirt-Emerson closed in June (2018), it left the district with just one high school, the West Side Leadership Academy. It stoked fears of a continuing exodus of students who would leave for charter schools or other districts… Under Hinckley, Gary reached a deal resolving $8.4 million in back payroll taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS forgave a large portion of the debt, leaving the district with a $320,000 payment. The freeing up of the liens on buildings allowed Hinckley to list 33 vacant schools and properties for sale. By November, the district had accepted five offers, amounting to $480,000. More sales are still being weighed. In all, Hinckley erased about $6 million of the district’s $100,000 million in long-term debts and reduced its monthly deficit from about $1.8 million to $1.3 million… Academically, all seven elementary schools received Fs on state report cards this year.”
Clearly, in Gary, Indiana, MGT Consultants has not miraculously achieved the kind of quick school district turnaround Colorado’s state school board bragged about when it contracted with MGT to take over three school districts.
Read on to learn about the role of ex-Indiana superintendent Tony Bennett and the Corporate Reform-disruption-greed Movement.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Every time I read these stories about failed turnarounds, I think about all the kids in those schools and their individual prospects for the future. And rather than think in the abstract about what might be done better in the long run, I tend to think in terms of the individual kid and how to give him or her actual prospects for/hope for the future. And when I think of that–of what I would say to a particular 17-year-old flunking out in that system–I run up against this issue, WHICH IS ALMOST NEVER ADDRESSED:
The best alternative for such a kid is to pass the GED (or another high-school equivalency test), fill out a FAFSA application, and get into a voc ed school to learn a trade (cosmetology, welding, whatever). But here’s the rub:
A few years back, Pearson took over the GED. They made the test A LOT HARDER and aligned it with the puerile Gates/Coleman “standards.” Now, what previously served as a gateway HAS BECOME A ROADBLOCK. It’s profitable for Pearson to have kids have to take the test over and over again, paying a fee each time. There are two ways to respond to this: a) pressure Pearson to make the test easier and b) provide a lot more free GED training. The latter is not a great alternative because for a kid who has already been through many, many years of frustration, all that additional delay in getting him or her on a viable track is a recipe for disaster.
All the “reform” failure should be examined through lens of individual students. What good is all the disruption, under funding, needless labeling from testing, takeovers and school closures? Market based education allows the wealthy to exploit the poor yet again. The billionaire and corporate meddling has been a disaster for the poor victims. We only hear about how great corporate reform has been for a few and, of course, for the greedy. We rarely hear about how difficult it has been for poor students that already live unstable lives.
Education should be a gateway to more opportunity, not an iron clad door slammed in the faces of the poor.
Surprisingly perhaps our local newspaper, the TIMES, printed in Munster,IN has done a very creditable job of covering the Gary school situation described above. I met at one of the schools in Gary some years ago when Tony Bennett appeared, was first to my feet to talk about the work of Dr. Ravitch but was not allowed to finish. I was one of the very few white people there and I think they just thought I was an outsider who could not offer insight. After it was over one of the teachers there commented to me that she knew what I was talking about as soon as I mentioned Dr. Ravtich’s name.
There is so VERY much going on now, not just in education itself, but ALL that is pertinent to our crises in so many ways in which educators have a stake in our future
We are so VERY fortunate to have a flag bearer of such renown and expertise to lead the fight. .
Gordon: “We are so VERY fortunate to have a flag bearer of such renown and expertise to lead the fight.”
Yes, Diane Ravitch is an amazing person. [Glad she’s on our side.]