Posted on 01/05/2017 9:10:58 AM PST by MichCapCon
Over the past 15 years, enrollment in the Detroit school district has imploded, falling from more than 100,000 students to just under 47,000. Without enough children to fill their classrooms, scores of public school buildings have been closed. The challenge this poses for parents was the focus of a recent story in the New York-based website Vice News. It featured a Detroit mother whose child’s school was shut down in 2013.
The story was titled, “School choice gutted Detroit’s Public Schools.”
The story tracks the impact of closing the Oakman Elementary/Orthopedic School. It reports that then-Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts informed Oakman parents they could send their children to one of two other district schools, Noble Elementary and Henderson Elementary.
Before it was closed, Oakman Elementary was in the bottom 2 percent of all public elementary and middle schools in the state, according to a report card on academic performance issued by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Unlike state rankings, the report adjusts for the socio-economic status of the students in a given school, which makes for a more valid “apples to apples” comparison of which schools add more value.
But the Noble and Henderson schools – the two alternatives offered to Oakman parents, according to the story – performed even worse on the report card.
Left out of this story was any mention of the extraordinary efforts made by Detroit's top leaders to ensure those choices remained limited to non-charter public schools in the nation’s worst-performing urban school district.
Detroit Mayor Michael Duggan and the Detroit City Council adopted a citywide five-year ban on selling abandoned and vacant district schools to charter schools. The ban was enacted in 2014, and the city has taken ownership of 77 school district properties, including Oakman, as part of a deal Detroit Public Schools made to pay off a debt it owed the city.
Under the ban imposed by the city’s political leadership, none of these properties could be sold to a charter school if it was within one mile of an existing district school. Oakman fell under the ban if the distance is measured as the crow flies.
Detroit Premiere Academy, which was in the top 10 percent of all schools on the Mackinac Center report card, receiving an A grade. It was a 3.8 mile drive from Oakman Elementary.
Any time you see the worded “gutted” in a story, you are looking at an opinion piece disguised as a news story.
Journalists use words like that when they are criticizing Republicans.
I hate to burst your bubble but the NYT is spot on, and what people forget it isn't just Detroit, but Greater Metro Detroit in total....
What people forget is Greater Metro Detroit has a higher number of Tourist than Lake Michigan in the summer, and here are some of the reasons why:
* The Detroit Sports Teams, Tigers, Lions and Pistons draw folks from other states in a high number.
* The historical gems of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village west of Detroit in Dearborn are national treasures and people do flock their.
* Various Auto Museums, in the area, although getting into the Chrysler and GM ones with all the old protos might is above my pay-grade.
* The North American International Auto Show, draws over 5000 Auto Press from the worldwide and brings in Billions to Detroit and over 750,000 thru the doors during the show
* AutoRama ( Hot Rod Show ) is one of the biggies on that circuit where the "Ridler Award" is given. If you are a Hot Rod fan this show is the real deal, the likes of Foose, Kindig etc are all their or have cars in attendance.
* The Techno Music fest in the summer draws something like a Million people.
* Not to mention the Woodward Dream Cruise with people coming in from something like 30 countries and bringing their cars. It makes the Oshkosh Airshow look wimpy, and I have been to both.
* And their is the Concours De-Elegance that is now held in Northville MI, that has multi-million dollar cars all over the place like popcorn.
And that is just for starters off the top of my head...
In actuality, you don't know how close to correct you are.
I live in the Marxist, Homofascist Femanazi alternate universe of the San Francisco Bay Area cesspool.
The good citizens of my community have eliminated and closed our Police Department after they became a REVENUE department.
Currently, we are working on disincorporation of the city, which will take care of the still existing Fire Department, but we probably will not be successful.
Fortunately, my doctor was privately schooled and is not beholden to student loan indebtedness, so he can defy Obamacare funding threats and still accept my cash for his services.
But be comforted in the fact that I still must avoid the thousands of dangerous criminals that Moonbeam Brown and his pet government employees unions have released.
What school did you go to? Redford, by any chance?
How will the Left brainwash the kids if they can’t get them gathered in one place?
Don’t worry, Detroit. You can still go begging to the public every election day for more money for the schools, even though so many have been shut down. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s for the children you know.
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