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Monday, August 15, 2005

Grand Rapids Schools Collapsing

There was a good article in today's Grand Rapids Press regarding much of the top leadership of the Grand Rapids Public Schools district leaving. Bert Bleke, the superintendent, is leaving only four years into his five year contract, the Deupty Superintendent has left, the Chief Academic Officer is leaving in a few months, the Chief Operations Officer is leaving, as well as two of the five high school principals (one of them leaving for a charter school), as well as a number of elementary school principals.

Hmm... maybe they see the writing on the wall?

The school district, which spends over $10,000 per student, claims that it is near bankruptcy. At this point, that's about the best thing that could happen. If a federal trustee takes over, he could rip up the contracts and start over. All the union contracts should be tossed, along with most of the administration. They maybe, just maybe, some reform could be implemented. But we're not holding our breath.

With folks like Mayor Heartwell in the likely position to influence what happens to the district, there really is no hope. He'll probably propose a group hug to make things all better.

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