Simone Lightfoot

(Posted to Ms. Lightfoot's Facebook page April 3, 2015)

THE CHOICE IS OURS REPORT 

BY THE COALITION FOR THE FUTURE OF DETROIT SCHOOLCHILDREN

LEAD BY THE SKILLMAN FOUNDATION

After more than twenty-seven years serving in the body politic, there is benefit in relying on experience and trusting ones instincts. While this type of work requires eternal vigilance, when a political agenda reveals itself the first time, believe it.

In the public policy arena, there exists what I term ‘raw’ politics - sort of politics on steroids if you will. When practiced, raw politics is not about good, bad, fair, equity, sustainability, viability nor feasibility. It’s not about hope, waiting to see, keeping the faith, leveling a playing field, best practices, outcomes nor data driven decisions. It’s not about establishing order, higher callings, broad input, financial stability, parental involvement, the will of voters, a city charter or a state constitution.

In reality, raw politics defies all of these variables because its sole function is to garner results that reflect the interests of its funders. It’s just that plain, just that simple.

In full disclosure, I work and advocate on behalf of supporting, shoring up and fixing TRADITIONAL PUBLIC EDUCATION. Not choice, charters of any type, EAA nor for-profit education models. Primarily, because each of these - as practiced in Michigan have contributed to the dismantling of democracy as we know it and has not proven overall to perform any better and in many cases worse, than traditional public education. Therefore, the views I share come through that lens.

Instead of creating and re-creating from scratch, whole new education systems that in short time grow to become plagued by many of the very challenges facing traditional public education (poverty, transportation costs, growing special needs population, technology and infrastructure needs, safety, professional development, demand for expanded programs, math, reading and science proficiency, etc.), resources should be directed to address, modify and fix the challenges facing traditional public schools (DPS).

Instead, the answers have been and continue to be - adding bureaucracy and layers of governance along with for-profit models and appointed boards not elected by or directly accountable to tax payers. In essence, the continuation of one government bureaucracy marketed as fixing the failures of another bureaucracy, which in turn deals with other bureaucracies all while resources needed in the classroom are depleted.

Although I might not prioritize hope over evidence, wait and see over already demonstrated and political naivety over hardball political realities, it does not mean I cannot acknowledge the efforts of my colleagues in this work. Many of whom came to the table and remained there - hoping for the best.

Unfortunately, since the Governors education train left the station well before the Coalitions recommendations were released, even some of their best suggestions will now have the burden of chasing down multiple political tracks for any chance of catching a ride.

Note however, those suggestions that easily become public policy will reveal themselves as part of the pre-planned agenda.

As I have reviewed the 28-page report entitled The Choice Is Ours, where a great deal of ground was covered, I chose to focus my post on a few key thoughts that stood out in my mind. But let me encourage you to actually read all 27-pages (with words on them) and formulate your own thoughts......

SOME NUMBERS:

Detroit has 14 different districts and authorizers. Under those fourteen are more than 50 individual charter operators and local education agencies, each of which acts as its own district.

- DPS enrolls about 47,000 students in 95 traditional schools

- EAA enrolls more than 6,000 students in 12 of the city’s lowest performing 

schools

- 12 public charter authorizers (including DPS and the EAA) enroll about

36,000 students in 97 schools

- 26,000 students leave the city to attend traditional public schools and 

public charters in the suburbs

IN MY VIEW THE REPORT IS:

• SKEWED TOWARD CHARTERS: The report is heavily skewed toward charter schools and choice (code for competition and for-profit models) while referencing the need to level the playing field for all schools. That has not proven possible to date as each of these other models - out of necessity to maintain their existence, takes away from and further destabilizes traditional public schools (DPS).

• SKEWED TOWARDS CHARTERS-EVEN FAILING ONES: The report fully acknowledges that when so many are in charge, there is no accountability. It goes on to highlight that schools have performed poorly and remain open without being held accountable for quality.

It also highlights that some low performing public charter schools are actively recruiting students and in some cases opening new schools which is not good for kids or the city.

The report even goes further and acknowledge that when the state legislature removed the cap on public charter schools, it exacerbated public school funding and enrollment challenges. Yet, even with all of that, it never once called for the closing of failing charters. In fact, the opposite was found throughout the report.

While a moratorium on pre-K and kindergarten suspensions was recommended (which is fine) there was not a call for a moratorium on new charters. Instead, it called for the combining, centralizing and coordinating with what the report itself acknowledges are proven failures.

• SKEWED TOWARDS CHARTERS-SPECIAL NEEDS: The report did not call for charters or any other education model to be required to service equitably the significant number of children with special needs in the district. Even though DPS spends $40.8 million over and above the dollars it receives to support special education (because it is forced to service the high concentration of special needs students other education models do not).

• SKEWED TOWARDS CHARTERS-MPSERS: The report acknowledged state policies have created an unfair playing field and inequities, yet did not call for charters to be required to pay into the state retirement system nor require certified, qualified and credentialed teachers.

• SKEWED TOWARDS CHARTERS-NO MORATORIUM: The report did not call for a moratorium on charters even though it acknowledged increased competition has:

-diminished DPS market share (from 85 percent to 42 percent), a nearly 40% 

decline in students

-created a significant number of schools that are not decreasing proportionately, 

generating rising costs associated with supporting the excess capacity of 

school buildings

-caused a generated draw down from DPS instructional spending

• SKEWED TOWARDS CHARTERS – INFORMATION/DATA SYSTEM/TRANSPORTATION: While enhancements, upgrades and modifications were definitely, without question needed in DPS, the district did at least have coordinated enrollment policies, rules, admission requirements, established deadlines, metrics, the data of its students, tracking indicators along with early childhood, bilingual, special education programs and transportation.

Today, DPS must provide transportation for K-8 students while also paying huge costs for transporting special education students: an average of $2,700 per student and up to $15,000 per student for some. In all, DPS spends $30 million a year to transport 19,000 students

Choice schools and charters in general do not have coordinated policies, metrics, tracking indicators and other established infrastructure for needed services or transportation.

The report called for the creation of yet another layer of governance, the Detroit Education Commission (DEC) to be led by the mayor and responsible for areas usually left to a traditional school board to insure ( multiple data, various systems, transportation, etc.). That way choice, charters and EAA schools could put in place infrastructure DPS already had but is now fledgling. The report couches it as centralizing, rationalizing the city’s educational landscape and other descriptive words.

Two transportation pilot programs for fall 2015 were recommended along with extending tax credits to public-private partnerships.

• SKEWED TOWARD CHARTERS – TEACHER DEVELOPMENT: While DPS 

had trained, certified and skilled teachers among their ranks prior to multiple state interventions and take overs, other education models continue to struggle attracting, retaining and training qualified teachers. Resources currently used for this purpose take away from school budgets and where applicable, deplete bottom line profits.

The report calls for yet another layer of governance called a Leadership Academy to be developed for teacher training in order to master the academic content of their subjects. However, the recommendation also allows individual schools to opt out of any training if they so wish. Therefore, this additional structure does not actually ensure teachers are trained in a coherent, continuous manner or ensure quality of instruction for students.

• SKEWED TOWARD CHARTERS – FOR ENHANCED PROGRAMS: The 

report called for charters to gain access to the city’s career and technical education (CTE) programs, their performing arts and physical education classes, while also being able to create full fledged CTE charter schools. All because these alternative education models have not developed nor created the infrastructure for such costly programs themself and in the meantime have hurt DPS’s once higher performing programs.

• SKEWED TOWARDS EAA – SCHIZOPHRENIA: Overwhelming 

public, parent and higher education outcry, that includes resignations, denouncement’s via school board resolutions, scathing media scrutiny, negative independent analysis and EAA internal data demonstrate the failures of EAA. The report advocated the EAA not be dissolved or ended but instead inherited (moved) by another governance structure - the State School Reform Office and State School Reform District.

The report used stern and direct language when advocating, “the inter-local agreement between the DPS Emergency Manager and Eastern Michigan University should be terminated” (which is the right thing and will make EMU supporters and faculty happy). But instead of going on to end the EAA, the report turned around and recommended EAA functions, “will be taken over by the entities created years ago specifically to help turn around chronically low-performing schools – not just in Detroit, but in communities all across the state”.

In essence, the report advocates for the EAA to spread across the state of Michigan.

SKEWED TOWARDS MAYORAL CONTROL: Although Detroit’s general public has been consistently vocal that they did not want mayoral control of their schools, the report advocated for the opposite via a newly created Detroit Education Commission run by the mayor.

The report advocates this body be handed over the powers that are generally the duties of a school board including setting performance standards and serving as gatekeeper, with the authority of siting, opening and closing schools among MANY other things.

A real cause for concern is directed at the number of potential contracts the mayor could have authority over:

POTENTIAL CONTRACTS

o opening, closing and siting of schools

o data collection contracts

• enrollment

• student data

• absenteeism

• suspension/expulsion

o data management contracts

o data distribution and publication contracts

o transportation contracts

o special education services contracts

o hiring of ombudsman contract

o professional development contracts

o district-wide training contracts

o school disciplinary/safety contracts

o wrap around support services contracts 

o bilingual services contracts

o facilities contracts (Career Technical Education upgrades)

o city service coordination contracts

Except to serve as chief cheerleader, lend perspective, help steer public/business partnerships, lend available city resources and support where appropriate (summer jobs, internship possibilities, youth in government opportunities, lend city staff for special efforts, etc.), the Mayor of Detroit should not be responsible for or play a governance role in public education as recommended by the report.

Not only does this add yet another layer of governance, but the myriad of unprecedented challenges facing the City of Detroit today requires the mayors (and his non-education trained staff) full attention including the multiple agencies, authorities, and boards he is already responsible for or has a role with.

Not to mention the mayor already has responsibilities related to labor agreements, downsizing of the city labor force, emergency responsiveness, lighting, public safety, bankruptcy recovery, African American business development, sanitation, combined sewer overflows, aged infrastructure needs, race relations, community benefits agreements, new transportation efforts, downtown development, regional responsibilities, jobs training, job and economic growth, aging transportation and emergency fleets, poverty, joblessness, abandoned structures, land use, social barriers, population decline, neighborhood needs, long-range planning, tight budget adherence, auto insurance, high taxes, city services, water affordability, mortgage funding, city roads, public lighting……..and that is just the beginning.

There is also rich, documented history of failure for DPS while under city control (as far back as the 1920’s up to the 1970’s).

This report, lead and provided by the Skillman Foundation, offers yet another rich opportunity for those of us who support traditional public education to stay busy fighting back.