Detroit, with its embarrassingly low NAEP scores, seems to have tried it all: They've gone from an elected school board to one that is mayorally appointed and back again. They've fallen under state control and been assigned an emergency financial manager. They've closed schools, renegotiated teacher contracts, and, most recently, pledged to convert over 30 percent of its schools into charters.
These are all reasonable, actionable initiatives. But none are what DPS needs. The district needs to break the glass and hit the reset button. It needs more than minor tweaks to the collective-bargaining agreement and promises that a few charters will be the kryptonite to the chronic failure that has plagued Motown schools.
As famed Recovery School District leader Paul Vallas frankly put it:
I think what Detroit has to do?they have to right-size themselves. Or the budget spiral is going to continue.? Converting schools that you were thinking of closing to charters, that's not getting at the end-of-the-line financial problems that plague the district.
Golly, that's a smart man.
?Daniela Fairchild
