It is no less important than President Abraham Lincoln signing a document to change the way a country operated."
That's Rochelle Riley fawning over the plan to overhaul Public Schools in Detroit. I humbly disagree, but you can read it yourself and decide.
The Excellent Schools website lists the following "Participants":
The Politician and the Shadow Government:
Mayor Dave Bing and Sue Carnell, City of Detroit
Greg Handel, Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce
The two leading Charter School groups in Detroit. They will make out like bandits if the plan goes through. They also need the money provided by the Foundations.
Clarke Durant, Cornerstone Schools (Think Catholic Schools without the nuns and crosses.)
Ralph C. Bland, NEW PARADIGM FOR EDUCATION and Detroit Edison Public School Academy (For Profit - the Dollar comes first)
The "Community."
Sharlonda Buckman, Detroit Parent Network (They say she's there as a parent.)
Robert C. Bobb, Barbara Byrd Bennett, and Robert Boik, Detroit Public Schools
The state-appointed head of the Detroit Public Schools whose many years with the D.C. Public Schools made them the acme of public education on America. The rest of the B-Team doesn't matter. No one but Bobb matters in DPS.)
I don't understand why Bobb is here. Yes this plan will destroy the Teachers Union and will strip teachers of protections against abusive administrators and wages that you can raise a family on, but it will also slowly shutter the public schools until the DPS becomes the dumping ground for the unwanted kids kicked out of the charter schools.
The controllers of the wealth of dead
Rip Rapson and Wendy Jackson, Kresge Foundation (The man who gave us K-Mart.)
C. David Campbell, McGregor Fund (McGregor's wife was lumber baron David Whitney's daughter.)
Carol Goss, Tonya Allen, and Kristen McDonald, The Skillman Foundation (One of the founders of 3M)
Michael J. Brennan, Michael Tenbusch, and Kelly Major Green, United Way for Southeastern Michigan
Sterling K. Speirn and Gregory B. Taylor, W.K. Kellogg Foundation (The Cereal guy.)
Think tanks and local reform groups: (People who will receive the money from those above to set up more of their charter schools.)
Doug Ross, New Urban Learning
Daniel S. Varner, Think Detroit PAL
Shirley R. Stancato and David Gamlin, New Detroit
Louis Glazer, Michigan Future, Inc. (I'm not sure what to make of him.)
OK, Let's look at the plan. It is pretty and nicely formatted. It has graphs and nice pictures. It is full of talk of 90% this, 90% that, and 90% the other. (90% is to education reformers what 110% is to football coaches.) It is free of details and any explanation of why anyone should listen to them - except for the $20 million the group plans to invest.
The plan calls for the creation of a Standards and Accountability Commission. This Commission will preform many vital functions that are already being performed. It will evaluate every school in Detroit - Public, Charter, Independent, Wholistic, Ba'hai, or Imaginary. It will create a test to evaluate all these schools. It will issue a report to the community on all these schools. In other words, it will duplicate what the State of Michigan already does.
After evaluating all the schools in Detroit, the Commission will release a list of forty failing schools and these schools would be "closed." Closed doesn't mean closed, it means some firings, some new "programs," some bringing in of private management companies, and, in desperate cases, the ritual slaughter of a white rooster.
Marvelous new teachers from all over the country will flock to Detroit. They'll come from Teach For America, the Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship Program, and the French Peace Corps.
The only mention of existing teachers is that they are old and will soon retire. If they'd make me an early retirement offer, I'd give it a look.
The reformers call for the Mayor to take over the schools and doing away with the School Board. OK, I cannot in any way defend any of the elected school boards I have known. Just google Otis Mathis, Reverend Murray, and Marie Thornton. But, come on, the Mayor? Mayor Dave Bing is a swell guy, but don't you think he's got enough on his plate? The city is imploding and he'll take time out to fix up the schools? And then what about when you get a Kwame Kilpatrick? Let's open up the School District's purse to Kwame and his ilk's greedy grasp.
The thing the report never mentions is who chooses the people on the Commission? Like the Excellent Schools group itself, the mechanism for selecting the all-powerful Commissioners is more than vague - it is non-existent. In the spirit of cooperation, I would like to offer this humble proposal - Predestination. This should go over well with the Excellent Schools crowd because, if I remember my Presbyterian training, proximity to or direct control of large pots of money is a sure sign of being one of the Elect.
And since I am not of the Elect, my Scottish heritage is no guarantee, I must rest my fingers (we've sadly lost that fond expression "lay down my pen") and submit humbly.
3 comments:
Thank you for the translation. I am a new board member seeking information. We are also seeking ways to not only get at the truth, but to disseminate it as broadly as the "news."
Elena Herrada
District 2
elenamherrada@gmail.com
As a young educator, I see a necessary change for DPS. These people are working to make such necessary changes for people who need it most. Working to better not only the lives of many in need, but the historic city of Detroit, as well. How can this be a bad thing?
Their operations behind the scenes are not crystal clear, but their goals are. Yes, their goals may seem unreachable, but how is that any different from the goals of NCLB or A Race To The Top? I'm not one to usually support big business or making profits off education, however if their goals are the same as mine (to better educate Detroit), and they can better reach them... what's the problem? In the end, even if I lose my job, because they decided somehow that I was ineffective, the students are benefiting from their efforts. At the end of the day all that matters is that students with previously bleak futures, can and are progressing towards much more successful futures.
To be honest this is effort is beyond you and me as educators. I see it as an effort to lower the poverty rate, thus lowering the crime rate, and thus save lives and money spent to convict and imprison criminals…bottom line, everyone does better, when everyone does better. Detroit needs this. Michigan needs this. (Flint and Pontiac need this, too.)
: hopeless romantic
How can you be sure that what they are doing is good for the students? I'm not so sure. Did you notice that no one who teaches is included in any of these reform plans? I am not willing to grant that these self-appointed experts know more about schools that I or many other teachers do. And I do object to losing my job because one of the idiot principals I've worked for decided that I was bad teacher.
I think that this effort is going to fade away because of the changes in the Emergency Manager law. That is where the "reform" is going to come from. Bobb used his powers to direct millions to corporations. Roberts is using his to strip us of our rights and our salary, all of which will serve to keep talented young people from entering the field and drive experienced teachers out.
As for the NCLB and Race to the Top, well, did you see all those teachers protesting in DC this past weekend? Those plans were a large part of what they are protesting.
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