Fewer students means more money woes for state's school districts (MI)

they have lost 60% of their population since 1950. They have to much infrastructure for their population and tax base.

When the Gov. decided to reduce state aid and revenue sharing,it districts and cities very hard. The automotive industry took a big hit and the area suffered. Now, the PPT is reduced and it will affect districts even more.

As for Detroit is a dying city, the article is about the metro area of Detroit. Many people who live in the area would say that is not true. The area needs help not what has been happening.

This problem covers 30+ years.

The high school used to be Class B years ago before massive job losses in town (small town lost over 6000 jobs 7 years ago and has been clinging to life ever since), and now we're a low-level Class D school. We desperately need to get the students back who've left for other area districts, and in all reality, we're the better high school by a long shot. That's not what people think, though, so we keep losing students.

We've already made cuts and are making more. It's getting crazy.

Money that could have gone to the public schools.

"And charter schools -- a big cause for some of the enrollment declines in some districts -- are thriving for the most part. Among those in metro Detroit that were open in, enrollment has grown by 9%."

And who will blame the charters when they don't succeed? Who cares? The bastards will just close shop and open another one! I've worked at charters in Highland Park and Hamtramck (both cities within Detroit) and the BEST I could hope for was (a) low pay and benefits and (b) my CAOs telling us how much they loved being able to hire and fire whomever they liked and for whatever reason. Meritocracy? Yea, right. Theirs was a feifdom.

At one of the charters, we had to show improvement on the NWEA assessment annually. It's actually a pretty good gauge of student growth, but not implemented well, IMHO. That being said, many of my colleagues did little to no teaching prior to the initial test in the fall because that gave room for more growth throughout the year. Thus, you get to keep your job! Yay! Wait, was that the point of teaching? I forget. Ah, fuck it. Kids are dollar signs, anyway, right?

Destroying public schools is on his agenda.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/8510
Rick Snyder's Twitter name @onetoughnerd. Plans to privatize education in guise of reform.

His EAA is/was a finalist to get millions from Arne Duncan's Race to the Top. It will give a group handpicked by Snyder carte blanche to close public schools and turn them into charter schools.

Apparently the EAA is a finalist in the current so-called "Race to the Top" competition. The Ann Arbor Public School district (as part of the Washtenaw Alliance for Education) and many other organizations and individuals have signed on to a letter sent to President Obama and Sec. Ed. Duncan objecting to the EAA's candidacy, and urging its rejection.

This is the key passage:

The EAA, a “state reform” district modeled after the problematic New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD), was established through an August 2011 interlocal agreement between then-Emergency Manager of Detroit Public Schools Roy Roberts and Eastern Michigan University under the former Public Act 4 of 2011 (“The Emergency Manager Law”), an act that was repealed by the Michigan electorate in the November 6 election. Shortly thereafter, the Detroit Board of Education voted to disband the EAA and to sever ties with Eastern Michigan University. Despite the voice of the electorate, our Michigan state legislature is pressing forward with bills during the lame duck session that would codify the EAA into state law.

We oppose the establishment of the EAA and ask that you stand in support of Michigan voters who are deeply concerned with its impact on our children’s education and on our rights as citizens to advocate for them.

BUT here is the SCARY part:

Michigan Republicans move to privatize public education under the guise of reform

Although many of us here in Michigan have been fearful regarding what the Republicans in our state legislature would do during the lame duck session which lasts for the next three weeks, few of us envisioned the draconian steps they would take to hand over the education of our kids to private, for-profit corporations and destroy our public school system once and for all. That is, however, exactly what they plan to do.