Reputation In Detroit

For decades now, there have been educational problems in the inner city schools in the United States. The schools inability to teach some students relates to the poor conditions in the public schools. Some of the conditions are the lack of funds that give students with the proper supplies, inexperienced teachers, inadequate resources, low testing scores and the crime-infested neighborhoods. These conditions have been an issue for centuries, but there is nothing being done about it. Yet, state and local governments focus on other priorities, including schools with better academics. It is fair to say that some schools need more attention than other does. However, when schools have no academic problems then the attention should be focused

America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s

Assuming Claypool has fixed the issue, he along with Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson, and the mayor who, as explained by FitzPatrick, announced “scholarship totals, graduation rates and a variety of other metrics they say point to ‘blistering’ improvements at the country’s third largest district.” FitzPatrick quoted Lewis’ reaction, who she had quoted that, “By defunding these public schools you are starting to force parents to try to find something else. … That’s not competition. That is craven” (“Schools chief chalks improved CPS scores to better choice”).

Since last spring, Philadelphia school district leaders have been sounding the alarm about this year’s fiscal budget. Even after months of discussions and headlines, schools have opened with fewer resources than last year. On March 28th the School Reform Commission approved a lump sum budget which showed a need for an additional $220 million in revenue in order to provide schools with same resources as the “wholly insufficient” 2013-14 school year (McCorry). There will be many inadequate funding impacts on the quality of the education. Classroom resources would be stripped to untenable levels. The district would reduce as much as $2.2 million funding to the districts’ multiple pathways to graduation program which affects estimated 300 students. Another $1.5 million could be reduced from the elimination of preparation and professional development time for teachers at the district’s high needs promise academies. The district’s building maintenance budget could have reduction in amount of $9.6 million. Schools will be cleaned less frequently as a result. Building maintenance will also be curtailed as a result. District’s school police budget could also have reduction in amount of $2.4 million. School police officer vacancies will be unfilled, leaving an additional 27 elementary schools to share an officer.

There has been many attempts to solving this problem, on all different types of levels. Local levels with committees and coalitions such as The Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren have been striving towards a solution. For a strong coalition, there needs to be adequate human resources. This means the number of people involved and the power of the people involved (Graham, 181). The Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren has regular citizens such as concerned parents, people on the school board, and also people with connections to higher powers. On the state level, there is Governor Rick Snyder putting more emphasis and promoting more blue collared jobs that only require skills training. Since this problem exists throughout the nation and crosses state

The situation with Detroit Public Schools has been taking turns for the worse. Every day it seems like something is adding up to the pile of Detroit Public School District issues. DPS has been considered as “The Worst School District” in the country. DPS have been struggling to improve the school district, The district has been trying for decades as nothing has been working. Detroit Public Schools main issues that need to be tackled down includes: unhealthy environments, oversized classrooms, and the district’s unbalance of power.

In American society, race and racial issues are viewed in a black and white manner. The media portrays matters of race in the simplest terms without taking intersectionality into account. Social class, economic factors, and historical factors impact how racial issues are regarded and handled in specific geographic locations. John Hartigan demonstrates this in his book, Racial Situations: Class Predicaments of Whiteness of Detroit, which describes the dynamics of three local communities: Briggs, Cork Town, and Warrendale. Hartigan examines how white identity varies in these three neighborhoods due to other social factors. Comparing how these local communities respond to race versus the media’s response shows how categorizing people into monolithic groups based only on race is a tactic that ignores the real issues and delays finding solutions.

The educational funding problem in Michigan takes root back in 1809, when the first public school was founded. While funding was not an issue at the time, the way schools were funded through local property taxes eventually created a large problem. Fast forward to 1985, Michigan has long moved past the rural cities of the 1800’s and into affluent suburbs and cities. The size and taxation pools of cities have greatly changed from 1809 to 1985, but the way schools were funded remained exactly the same. This lack of change led to a large disparity in school funding from richer districts to poorer districts. Coupled together with local governments’ inability to convince citizens to vote in favor of millages and tax hikes, the disparity ballooned. In 1993, Bloomfield Hills ranked in the 99th percentile of Michigan schools, was spending on average $10,294 per-student, while Standish Sterling ranked in the bottom 1st percentile, spent $3,738 per-student, roughly a $6,500 difference per-student (Roy 2003). This inconsistency greatly disadvantaged students all the way to 95th percentile, where there

Students should not not go to school because they don’t have enough money, they should go to school to be better educated and prepared for a real job that makes more money. That does not mean that Detroit has to lower their taxes, because a lot of the population probably does not even pay taxes because they do not make enough money. However, students should have a good work ethic and want to strive to do their very best. A better work ethic in school might change the way that they view their responsibilities, and want to help their neighbors and neighborhoods. One change will be the illegal jobs that go on, such as drug deals and prostitution. If people want to improve the world that they live in, then they should either get a better job that is legal or go to school but do not be doing illegal things that will get them thrown in jail and start even more riots. This might be challenging for the lazy people that don’t want to do anything who are on welfare for no reason at all, but it might be a good start for the people that want to be successful in

Chicago Public Schools are the fourth largest district in the U.S and one of the lowest performing in the U.S. The school system in Chicago is struggling not only with student performance, but also with the large amount of debt the school has and the fight to come to an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union.

With the median of the community’s income being fairly low, parents or guardians often cannot get the required materials or help that would be beneficial to their own or their child's education. Many people do not prioritize spending on academic aid or materials, despite it directly affecting the child’s future. As said in Happy City, “Now the poorest fifth of American families pour more than 40 percent of their income into owning and maintaining cars” (Montgomery 243). That money being spent on cars does not even include the monthly bills that need to be paid. After paying for those, people in poverty in the Toledo area might rather spend the small amount of leftover money on entertainment than paying for school supplies. According to the district report, the TPS report card on Education Ohio shows an F for achievement (Toledo City). This means that the students did not do well on state tests and multiple people didn’t even pass the tests. There was also an F for the prepared for success section. That one measures how prepared the students are for future opportunities in

Detroit is a very well-known and diverse city. “Somewhere behind its neglected, graffiti covered skyscrapers are charming reminders of a city that was once among the world’s wealthiest” (Gray). This city has been through a lot. Detroit was first founded by the French in 1701 and then used as a fur trade post. Jumping a little in the future, it has had riots and protest for equal rights among its busy streets. Detroit is also known as the Motor City. “By the mid-twentieth century one in every six working Americans was employed directly or indirectly by the automotive industry” (Sugrue). Yet after everything this city has endured Detroit is thought of as a place of fear. It has a lot of history and has a lot to offer if people would let

When schools are faced with rising costs they are, “coerced to trim budgets by reducing staff, increasing class size, deferring maintenance, and eliminating athletic programs and class trips” (Trainor 42). These cuts naturally cause some unrest with everyone in the school district. Dine Anderson even mentions in the article, “Who’ll Fuel Our Schools” that one of her friends said that, “A good public school is rarer to find than a parking spot in San Francisco.”

Public school systems, run democratically to provide every child the tools and opportunity to learn. Like everything that we have made, they are not perfect or infallible, but they symbolize an ideal; that by providing every child a suitable environment to grow, the child would become a driving force that may galvanize the world to change for the better. Democracy and justice are the system’s core values – not profit, expansion or market share. However, the segregation of the rich from the poor into privileged and impoverished neighborhoods, has caused school funding to be polarized. It is the main reason why some schools struggle, not all of them have the resources that could have been allocated to them. At the same time whenever we look at school spending, we look at an average, never considering that most of that money goes to the children of the wealthy and much less to poor kids. Adding to that we have not considered that more than half of our public school students live

On April 7, 1970 the Detroit Board of Education adopted a plan which provided for changes in twelve out of twenty one high school attendance zones in the city of Detroit, designed to affect a more balanced ratio of Negro and white students at the senior high school level. This plan was going to take effect over a three year period with the purpose of bringing about a decentralized school system within the city which would allow for the election of regional boards which would bring about greater participation at the local level by the community. This was a step towards achieving the goal of the