Detroit schools pushed awaya $200M gift

[Superfly]

Teacher's unions suck.
------------------

The gift would have come in the form of 15 new charter high schools that would have guaranteed a graduation rate of 90 percent. The city's current graduation rate is 67.2 percent, according to the School Evaluation Services Web site created by the financial ratings firm Standard & Poor's.


After seeking legislative authorization for his schools for almost a year, Thompson threw in the towel after the Detroit teachers union threw what can only be described as a tantrum at the prospect of having to compete with charter schools.


On hearing that Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm had made a deal with the Republican Legislature on a comprehensive charter school expansion package that would have included the Thompson academies, Detroit teachers shut down the schools with a one-day walkout Sept. 25. Instead of teaching on that school day, 3,000 of these primary beneficiaries of the government school status quo held a mass demonstration at the state Capitol.


In response to this pressure from the public school establishment, both the governor and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick walked away from the Thompson gift and from the broader charter deal, which also withdrew governance of the city's school district from the state-imposed reform board and returned it to a locally elected school board with strong mayoral input.

[Superfly]

1. Anybody?

Just curious...

[Octafish]

3. Teachers' Unions don't "suck."

They don't want to open the door to "Charter" schools. Next the GOP-dominated legislature will demand tax breaks for people sending their kids to private schools. After that, the public schools will be even more under-funded than they are now. Plus, they'd have the added burden of being responsible for the "slow" kids.

[poskonig]

2. I'm generally on the side of innovation.

However, since I don't live in Michigan, I don't feel qualified to comment.

[notadmblnd]

7. I'm from Michigan and I say good for her!

These charter schools are run for profit by Conservitive (with a capital C) organizations. Check out the Heritage organization, they haveone down the street from me called the Walton Academy. I believe they are manufacturing a new version of the Nazi Youth organizations in Hitlers Germany. Try googling "The Republican Manifesto". Its their plan I kid you not.:tinfoilhat:

Edit: my dyslexia was seeping.

[madfloridian]

4. I feel bad when Democrats don't understand why teachers need unions.

Could you give a link to more of the story? Sounds like they just wanted to keep their public schools to me.

Already public schools are required to give Title I money to private schools for tutoring. These schools are NOT accountable. They get the money, they do not have to account for it or the children.

Some charter and private schools here have been formed by people with arrest records.

I would like to see more of the topic, but it sounds like the teachers were right.

"The gift would have come in the form of 15 new charter high schools that would have guaranteed a graduation rate of 90 percent. The city's current graduation rate is 67.2 percent, according to the School Evaluation Services Web site created by the financial ratings firm Standard & Poor's......."

Who would be accountable for proving the 90% qualified to graduate?

This quote concerns me a little. Bill Bennett of gambling fame is running the internet schools in Florida. They have different standards than the public schools, but they get public money. Already they are promoting kids who were retained in the public schools.

[Superfly]

5. Oops...sorry...

I haven't been to DU for a while. Forgot the rules.

link

[madfloridian]

6. Wow, that first paragraph should tell you everything.

"Thanks to the poisonous atmosphere created by a hostile Detroit public school establishment, philanthropist Robert Thompson has decided, with deep regret, that it is impossible for him to donate a $200 million gift to the city's schoolchildren."

Dadgum those hostile public school people anyway. (lame joke)

Guess you can tell I believe in public schools, and I am fighting very hard to keep a few in Florida. Jeb has destroyed our school system here in just a few short years.

I am retired, and that is good. I could not bear to be teaching during the destruction of a great institution: public schools.

[dsc]

8. Charter schools have a dismal record

In Ohio they have done worse, some had not one student pass the 4th grade proficiency test. I will say here and now that either they wouldn't have kept the promise or they would have controls over enrollment that public schools don't have.

[madrchsod]

9. ok guess what..

as far as i can tell from google,thompson runs a "trade school" in pa.then i went to googles press release on this subject-it was written by "the mackinac center of public policy" and guess who they are a "part of"-the wonderful folks at "townhall"..no wonder the teachers walked out and i don`t blame them...the teachers don`t suck-jennie and kwame should have done their homework and saved themselves alot of trouble....