Grand Rapids Pundit

Charter School News for Grand Rapids and Detroit

There’s some good news in regards to charter schools to report for both Grand Rapids and Detroit.

For some quick background - state laws define a “first class” school district, which only Detroit Public Schools qualifies for. This special status allows Detroit’s school system some privileges in terms of funding, but also the state school code limits the types of charter schools that can operate in Detroit only to those chartered by public universities. As our readers may know, the number of university-chartered schools is capped at 150 statewide. However, a few other entities are able to issue charters as well, and that includes community colleges, intermediate school districts, and regular school districts. One of the privileges of “first class” status that Detroit Public Schools has enjoyed is a prohibition on any schools chartered by community colleges, intermediate school districts, and school districts. However, this is about to change.

The definition, in the school code, of “first class” district is any district that has over 100,000 students. However, because of the exodus of students out of DPS, the enrollment is expected to drop below 100,000 this year, meaning that community colleges, such as Bay Mills, will be able to finally open more charters in Detroit.

There was some confusion with the budget that was just passed for schools. At first it looked like the budget changed the definition of “first class” district in all state laws. The budget did change the definition of “first class” district to any district over 60,000 students, but that change in the law only applies to the School Aid Act, and not the school code. According to the Michigan Association of Public School Academies:

The newly defined “first class school district”, at over 60,000 students, effects only those provisions of the school aid act.  At the same time, first class district provisions within the school code — including chartering options for community colleges — remains defined as a district with 100,000 students.  Also, a provision that Detroit Public Schools can stop other traditional school districts from operation within the city limits was stripped from the bill.

This means that, finally, more charter schools can operate in Detroit (soon). More students will finally have a choice, other than being stuck in perhaps the worst school district in the nation.

In another bit of good news, Grand Rapids is getting its first general-education charter high school.  Grand River Prepatory High School will open up this fall. It will be operated by National Heritage Academies and is an extension of Excel Charter Academy. Excel’s eight grade students will get enrollment preference, but the enrollment process is open to all ninth-grade level students. The charter school detractors always harp on organizations like National Heritage for not operating high schools, but that’s about to change. Hopefully this will not be the only charter high school in Grand Rapids. The parents of GR deserve to have more choices. Well, they are already choosing - to leave Grand Rapids. Maybe more charter schools in the City would retain young couples with school-age children. Yes yes, I know, the new High School isn’t inside the city limits of Grand Rapids, but it’s a good start.

Posted by: GRPundit on Friday, 25th Jul, 2008

Detroit Schools: 75% Dropout Rate

The Detroit News has a short article today on the dropout rate of Detroit Public Schools students. The article states that a report from Education Week, a weekly education newspaper, has done a study showing that Detroit’s dropout rate is 75%. You can view the report’s web page by clicking here.

However, the bureaucrats at Detroit Public Schools are going ape because they say the numbers are “totally erroneous.” They say that they report a graduation rate of 67% to the state. So who is telling the truth? They both are. The difference is that Michigan school districts are only required to report the graduation rate of current seniors. In other words, they calculate it by taking the number of students who start the 12th grade and dividing it by the number of students who graduate that year. The Education Week report takes the more realistic approach of taking the number of students to start the 9th grade and dividing that into the number who actually graduate in the 12th grade. You see, many of the students who drop out do so before the 12th grade. Detroit Public Schools is misleading the public, as is the state of Michigan, by only reporting graduation rates of 12th graders.

So, we see that Detroit Public Schools is a failure by every definition of the word, yet they are still in business. Does anyone wonder why the enrollment at charter schools in Detroit is skyrocketing? Tens of thousands of students are stuck in a utter dismal failure of a school district because the cap on charter schools has been reached. Our governor continues to pander to the teachers unions and refuse to support lifting the cap. Meanwhile, another generation of kids is being denied an education, and consequently is comdemned to continue the cycle of poverty, crime, drugs, etc.

How about Grand Rapids Public Schools? The dropout rate at GRPS is slightly better - 52.8% of GRPS students actually graduate. Even more interestingly, the graduation rate of Godfrey Lee Public Schools (Wyoming) is only 37.8% and 49.1% in Kelloggsville Public Schools.The highest graduation rates in the area are at East Grand Rapids Public Schools (98.1%) and Forest Hills (97.9%). Unfortunately, charter schools are not listed in this report, but we do know that Black River Public School, a charter K-12 school in Holland, is ranked as the #2 school in the entire state by Newsweek.

Posted by: GRPundit on Tuesday, 12th Jun, 2007

Detroit Public Schools - Parents Have Spoken

Posted by: GRPundit on Monday, 16th Apr, 2007

State of the Statist

Governor Granholm’s State of the State speech was a surprising call for expansion of government, even for our current governor.

According to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the governor called for 20 expansions of state government and only one reduction in state government. Apparently our governor has yet to take Economics 101. Michigan has been competing to be the worst economy in the nation, and the governor is doing a great job of proposing greater bureaucracy, government, and taxation to make sure things stay that way.

Among the highlights of the governor’s proposed expansion of government, and consequently, increased taxation, are:

Grand Rapids Public Schools Paralysis

It’s funny to watch the Grand Rapids school board completely bungle everything they do. One has a hard time understanding exactly how they can bat 1000 when it comes to messing up the simplest task.

The GRPS board is considering selling the now-unused Huff elementary school on the city’s north side. They got two bids - first from a charter school company offering $1.3 million. The second bid is from a non-profit organization run by Dave Allen, one of the board members (and a former president of the board), offering about $800k.

The board had an “emergency” meeting last night to consider the charter school company’s bid. The board realized that it doesn’t look so good to sell a school to a board member (can anyone say conflict of interest?). Allen’s organization proposed selling off a portion of the land as “brownfield” sites so that the school district could capture additional tax dollars. One hitch - no one ran the idea by the city first.

To top it off, Allen’s organization wouldn’t even be able to raise the money for months. There was such an outcry at the unusual Wednesday evening meeting, that the board decided to table to decision.

They can’t even handle the sale of an unused building - how can we expect them to handle the education of 20,000+ kids?

Posted by: GRPundit on Thursday, 3rd Nov, 2005

GRPS Loses More Students

The Grand Rapids Press reported today that the Grand Rapids Public Schools lost 1,100 students over last school year. They say this is the largest single-year student loss in a decade. The article (which is not available online) quotes a school board member who’s completely baffled by the loss.

Well, gee, who knows, maybe it’s the total lack of fiscal discipline? After asking for and getting $160 million to build buildings, they increasingly hint that they will be declaring bankruptcy. Now please tell us, board members, who in their right mind would send their child to a school district that will be bankrupt in a year? The only students that will be left are those with parents who can’t afford to send their children someplace else.

So, while tens of thousands of children get completely short changed with a disaster of a school system, the politicians in Lansing, in collusion with the teacher’s unions, do everything they can to prevent the expansion of charter schools, which serve a much higher proportion of at risk and poor children than traditional public schools. And when’s the last time you heard a charter school whining about money?

It’s a tragedy that an entire generation of children, whose biggest hope in life is to get a good education, will be left behind by bureaucrats, labor unions, and selfish politicians.

Posted by: GRPundit on Monday, 19th Sep, 2005

State Unemployment Rate Rises Again

Michigan’s unemployment rate rose again in May, to 7.1%. In the mean time, the national unemployment rate continues to decline. It stands at 5.1%.

And the legislature and governor continue to argue over how much more money the state should borrow to “invest” in creating jobs. It’s akin to trying to borrow money to invest in the stock market. No financial expert would ever suggest doing so, but our politicians need to look like they’re doing something. Past government attempts at picking the economic winners and loser have failed, and they will again.

It comes down to this. Michigan is a high tax state that makes it tough for business to grow. The state single business tax is the most onerous tax in the nation. It taxes businesses even if they don’t make a profit. Heck, it even taxes companies when they pay for health care for their workers.

If the governor and legislature were serious about brining business to Michigan, they would do a few things:

Michigan’s Economy Ranks Dead Last

A recent report issued jointly by the National Governor’s Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures (hardly partisan hack groups) this month said that Michigan’s economy ranks dead last in the nation.

Some highlights are:

Personal income grew in Michigan by 3.29 percent between March 2003 and March 2004, placing Michigan second to last among the states. The national average was 5.15 percent.

Michigan was last among the states in employment growth between January 2004 and January 2005, showing a -0.3 percent decline, compared to a national average of 1.4 percent growth.

Michigan tied for 43rd in population growth between 2003 and 2004, registering 0.3 percent growth. The national average was 1 percent.

In the mean time, the governor and legislature continue to push useless “economic development” initiatives to give some businesses tax breaks (and tax increases to others). The Mackinac Center just released a report showing that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has been completely ineffective over the last ten years at creating jobs.

Time to face reality and fix Michigan’s economy with real reforms:

Michigan Unemployment Rises (Again)

Today we see that Michigan’s unemployment rate again increased. February’s rate is 7.5%, up from 7.1% in January.

Meanwhile, the legislature and governor wrestle with a $400 million budget deficit for next year.

The news just isn’t getting any better for Michigan. What is to be done to help this state? It seems we’re heading toward returning to the days of double-digit unemployment. That’s not the Michigan I want to live in.

And the news over the horizon is even worse. Ford and GM, two of the state’s largest employers, are steadily losing market share. GM just announced that their 2005 results will be far lower than previously expected.

Our state is reaping the results of heavy unionization. GM and Ford have such enormous unfunded pension and health care liabilities that there is a lot of doubt that they’ll be able to pay the bills in the next few years. This article quotes the former CEO of American Airlines saying that if GM doesn’t fix its pension and health care problem fast, “it cannot continue.” What would happen to Michigan if there is a GM or Ford bankruptcy?

Radical changes are needed for this state to begin to prosper again. Here are our radical recommendations:

Detroit School Implosion

In a nearly incomprehensible collapse of the Detroit School system, the Detroit Public Schools administration is projecting a loss of 40,000 students over the next three years. That’s in addition to the 30,000 that have been lost since 1998. The DPS enrollment stands at 140,000 this year.

The DPS 2005 budget has nearly a $200 million shortfall (that’s more than the entire budget of the Grand Rapids Public Schools). DPS predicts that it will have to close 110 schools over the next couple of years.

This is an unprecedented collapse of a school system. As we watch the death-throes of DPS, how far behind is Grand Rapids Public Schools?

Superintendent Bert Bleke said he would not rule out bankruptcy when he unveils a plan to address budget problems for GRPS in March. This is despite the fact that GRPS was successful in raising taxes to pay for $160 million in buildings in 2004 and passing a county-wide tax increase, bringing in millions more for GRPS.

What’s wrong with these school systems? They are finally feeling the heat of educational competition. Detroit has been a heavy focus of charter school growth over the last decade, with acceleration in the last few years. Grand Rapids has a few schools, but it seems to have leveled off. Regardless, school districts have had to adjust their delivery, operations, and structure to counter the effect of charters.

But the drain from urban school districts seems to continue. GRPS lost another 800 students this year, on top of the loss of hundreds of students a year for the last several years.

Is enrollment a problem, or a symptom of the problem? Charter schools can’t force anyone to enroll (as traditional public schools can). They open their doors and parents come running. Is the problem the existence of charter schools, as the education establishment wants you to believe, or is the problem the utter failure of public school systems? We believe it is the latter.

The education world is now a marketplace, and the public school systems must deal with that fact. We’re of the opinion that they are incapable of dealing with the situation because of the entrenched bureaucracy and the absolute unwillingness to embrace any change on the part of the teachers’ union.

DPS is almost dead. Is GRPS next? Will anyone mourn the death?

Posted by: GRPundit on Friday, 28th Jan, 2005