Disillusioned parent targets corruption in Detroit charter schools

[Hannah Bell]

As a black parent frustrated with the Detroit Public Schools, Chris White saw charter schools as the answer for better public education for Detroit's African-American and Latino families. He helped organize charter schools. He worked hard to successfully convince black Detroiters to believe in them. Now he has a very different mission: to clean up a charter system that he sees is as corrupt and troubled as the Detroit Public Schools.

"Charters have been reduced to being a decentralized system of fiefdoms that are not held accountable," says White, a leader of the city activist group, Coalition to Restore Hope...

Detroit's charter schools have been like a younger sibling who has many of the serious problems of his older brother, the Detroit Public Schools. Big brother grabs so much attention that the young sibling of charters and their students often get ignored.

Detroit's devastating national test scores underscore the point...Charter schools performed just as poorly as traditional public schools in the city.

http://www.macsb.org/NewsIndex.php?parm1=266&PHPSESSID=920971d7bed4cc0c983401f7dd0f1a65



...I think this is the prelude to more corporate presence in detroit charters...and the removal of local operators...

once again putting the lie to the PR story...

[rpannier]

1. The solution to this problem will most likely be

A) Give the Charters More Money
B) Give the Charters More Money
C) Give the Charters More Money
D) All of the Above and give the Charters more money slated for Public Schools

[knitter4democracy]

2. Oh, dear. If only he'd talked to teachers first.

We could've told him.

It entirely depends on who's running the school. If it's a school district (like mine) and has a good board, then it's good. If it's a corporation or some crazy group that has no experience in education (like one I almost interviewed for and ran like heck from after going to their parent night), then it's not good and often quite horrible.

Just look at the small Christian schools that only have good test scores because of the socioeconomic factors. It's flat-out scary what's going on in many of those classrooms, and yet, they get away with it every day.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Welcome to the revolution.