On schools and other things

The Detroit public school system recently announced that it is going to close another 50 schools in the next year or so. 23 are slated for closures this summer. 600 teachers will be laid off. An additional 30-40 will close next year. There are currently 194 schools in DPS. Over the last few years 70+ schools have closed.

A closed school represents a lot of money. Desks, Books, Chairs, etc etc. Unfortunately due to budgetary concerns most of that capital has been left in the schools to grow dust, acquire water damage, be vandalized etc. Why have so many schools been closed? there are many reasons. 1. population contraction. 2. charter school expansion (about a third of Detroit students are in charter schools)and the biggest reason:

3. money money money. The district just can't afford to keep the schools open. The state recently stepped in and appointed a new superintendent with all sorts of special powers and a special investigator to figure out the finances. Detroit has faced falling revenues for many years for two reasons; population contraction and the impoverishment of the city. Put simply: All the people who could afford to pulled up stakes and got the heck out of Dodge. Anyway, the investigator found an additional 100 million dollars in unpaid debt that the school district didn't know about. A whole stack of invoices stashed in a drawer somewhere.

So where does this leave the students? I guess there's not really any way to describe it...crowded classrooms, limited resources, violent hallways, violent classrooms, jaded teachers without resources or the incentive to actually teach. The dropout rate is over 50% in most high schools, literacy rates in Detroit are below third world levels.

Here are some snapshots:

On March 29, 2006, students at Mackenzie High in Detroit staged a walkout to protest the lack of textbooks and toilet paper. 32 were arrested, with 8 charged for disorderly conduct, and 1 for inciting to riot. Students complained that they had only one textbook per 3 students, an administrator had an expensive plasma television, amid allegations of a missing $3,000, and leaking roofs which damaged 45 new computers in storage.

On August 31, 2007, Detroit Public Schools announced that they have opened a Detroit Police mini-station in Henry Ford High School. Detroit Free Press article indicated that police mini-stations are planned for Cody, Cooley, Northwestern and Central high schools. [54] DPS maintains its own sworn and armed police officers.

So why am I saying all of this? I have a confession. I always assumed that it was possible for anyone to make it to the top in the United States. I always said, "yes there is inequality of outcome, but there's equality of opportunity. If someone born in a poor neighborhood wants to they can make it out." And it gave me a good feeling inside. It justified my lifestyle. It gave me a feeling of superiority. Somehow I was better for having chosen to be responsible with money and for having gotten a job and gone to college and pursued success. And it justified my not doing more to help people.

And so I guess my point is this: Equality of opportunity in this country is a myth. A kid who grows up with no education, with parents who weren't educated and don't know how to fight for him, with no prospect of a job, in a place that the rich have abandoned and left for dead, does not have the same opportunity to succeed that I did. I don't say that to condemn anyone, or to try to goad you to action. Most of the people who read this blog do more than I do to help people anyway. But I say it as a confession. I was wrong. And I am one of the rich who turn their backs on the poor.