Detroit Public Schools: Bankrupting Minority StudentsÂ’ Futures
January 31, 2013
By Arnold Ahlert
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In terms of the racial element, Education Trust-Midwest reported that Michigan has one of the worst student achievement gaps in the nation. Thus, DetroitÂ’s overwhelmingly black American student body has fallen behind their white
counterparts as far as any in the country–and as Michigan Merit Exam (MME) results reveal, the gap is getting larger. In 2011, Detroit tied Washington D.C. for last place nationwide in eighth-grade reading scores. Only 7 percent of students were grade-level proficient or better, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Almost unbelievably, DPS students were even worse in math. The Education Department’s 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test revealed that a paltry 4 percent of DPS students scored highly enough to be rated “proficient” or better.
None of this stopped Detroit teachers from taking a day off last December 11 to protest MichiganÂ’s subsequently enacted right to work law. Despite the
consistently substandard education produced by the cityÂ’s school unions, their members knew that reprisals for either that reality, or their illegitimate day off would never be challenged. The Michigan Education Association spent more than $7 million on political contributions, 86 percent of which went Democrats. That would be the same unions, along with their Democrat enablers, who consistently lobby against reforms such as vouchers, charter schools, the closing of underperforming schools, or anything else that puts the interests of students over those of the union.
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Despite all hollow denials to the contrary, Detroit Democrats and their public school establishment allies own what they have created. The Detroit public school system is bankrupt–morally and financially–and it is black American school children and their parents who are most affected.
Detroit Public Schools: Bankrupting
Minority Students? Futures