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 graduate from the 12th grade and dividing it by the number of students who started the 12th grade that year. The Education Week report takes the more realistic approach of taking the number of students who actually graduate from the 12th grade and divide it by the number who started the 9th 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

Detroit Schools Disaster

The Detroit Federation of Teachers (the Detroit teachers’ union) is reaping what they sewed. Their nearly two-week strike has apparently resulted in a loss of about 25,000 students, according to the Detroit News.

If the numbers hold next week Wednesday, which is the official state student count day, the district is set to lose about $230 million in funding, out of last year’s $1.5 billion budget. That’s a reduction of about 19% in students and 15% in funding.

The teachers’ union was upset over the district’s request for across the board pay cuts of about 5% to balance the budget, and they decided to engage in an illegal strike. The district capitulated, but now it looks like the district will be laying off hundreds more teachers and closing more buildings. It’s clear the union would rather have teachers out of work than getting a pay cut. Those teachers that will soon be out of a job have their own union to thank.

It’s time to lift the cap on charter schools. The Detroit School system is a disaster and it should be abolished. The children of Detroit are getting screwed in life because bureaucrats and unions can’t put the status-quo aside. The adults that run the system are acting like children, while the real kids are going to be doomed to a lifetime of continued poverty due to an utterly failed school system.

Posted by: GRPundit on Friday, 22nd Sep, 2006

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

ACLU Sues Detroit Schools

An interesting story came across the wire today saying that the ACLU has sued the Detroit school system for illegally searching students in a high school.

This is one of the few areas where we applaud the ACLU over here at GR Pundit. They like to ignore some amendments to the constitution while over-interpreting others. Anyhow, back to the story…

It appears as though a mass-search of Mumford High School in Detroit was conducted by police on Feb 18th. The search included patting down all 1800 students and forcing them into an auditorium while the search was conducted and not allowing them to leave. The term “false imprisonment” comes to mind here. Police are now corralling students into an auditorium and not letting them leave? Sometimes I wish I was an attorney just to go after things like this.

But, as you already know, this author is not an attorney so I can’t give legal advice. However, if I were a student at this high school I would refuse to be searched without a warrant. One such student did this, but was arrested for disorderly conduct. Getting in the way of the government’s monopoly on force can be dangerous indeed. Challenging the authorities has historically been a bad idea.

But, at least one student had the guts to refuse the blanket search. Who knows on what grounds this student refused, but it is a sad testament to what is being taught in schools these days. It’s pretty clear the constitution is not a topic of learning any more. Every student should understand his or her right to refuse a search without a warrant.

Before you reply with “well, you don’t understand what kind of crime and drug problem those schools have…”, allow me to add this: nothing was found in the search of those 1800 students.

Posted by: GRPundit on Friday, 11th Jun, 2004