The Crisis In Education In Detroit, Michigan

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.

Mark Biller describes the educational system like a delicate ecosystem, all parts of it need to work together if things are going to last. If the community does not support a school, odds are the school will have to close-down. If the teachers don’t work with parents, then kids will not get the support they need. If parents do not support teachers, students loose an

With the workforce becoming more competitive in today’s economy, the educational requirements have increased. By the year 2020, approximately 65% of all jobs in the United States will require a postsecondary education and/or further training proceeding high school education (“Recovery”). One thing that is not increasing is the rate of college enrollment of students from the Detroit Public Schools or college enrollment in general. There are many factors that contribute to this problem, just as there are also many solutions that may help assuage it. The main reason why students from Detroit Public Schools are not enrolling in postsecondary education institutions has to do with their financial situation.

There is an abundance of importance in the public school system. Most successful careers start with elementary, middle and high school education. So it is safe to say it is vital to maintain a major funding for all public school’s systems across the country. Of course funding isn’t the only broken piece of a perfect school system because not every school is in an appropriate environment. There are many factors that follow what type of funding each school gets and also how much. Many schools are placed in low income or areas in poverty, this causes students to have harder learning environments. The question is what would be a strategy to fix the gap in public school funding and where and how do you spend it? This could be solved by smart public school allocation, better pay structure for

The state budget cuts have also taken a toll to both teachers and parents’ pocketbooks. According to (Kloberdanz-Modesto, 2011) “As parents have quickly learned from this year’s long donation list and increased frequency of car washes and bake sales, it really may take a village to run the local school.” I have experienced firsthand for the past five years how much the donation lists have increased. From only having to purchase school supplies for my son, I now also purchase supplies for the classroom just to ensure my child has all the tools he would need in order to get his education. When my son first started school, I remember his school supply list requested only for a couple of pencils, erasers, and color pencils. Now his list has contains his personal school supplies and donations of hand sanitizer, paper towels, computer paper, lined paper, packs of pencils, packs of erasers, white board markers, and the list goes on. I honestly do not mind, but what about the other parents who cannot afford it? Just this previous year I got close with a parent whose child was also in my son’s class. I remember her asking if I would mind for her to purchase the “not so expensive items” from the list because she was tight on funds. I could see in her facial expression that she was embarrassed to ask the question, but without adequate financing what are we to do as parents to ensure our children receive the tools they need for their education? We dig into

Did the teachers of Detroit forget to take their flu shots? That is probably the reason why

If the problem is with teachers that do not value or wish the best for the students before them, then we need to stop that. If the problem is inequitable funding within and between school districts we need to correct that. If the problem is in the homes and hearts of the students themselves then we need to address that. Whatever it is, we cannot do nothing and scratch on heads as the current statistics continue to rise.

Where the school goes wrong is where the school tries to deal with issues internally instead of bringing in the elders and families from the community we have sliced our way into; as Mr. Eagle puts it, “It is never about us, without us.” He went on to describe the National Wraparound Initiative which is a needs driven versus services driven model to deal with crisis when the adults don’t know what to do. The process involves finding the important people in the life of the kid having problems, looking at ways to build up the positive traits in that kid by setting short and long term goals that are

One may think of education as a bridge to a successful life. But it is more than just that; it is a special gift. Many people in first world countries undermine education. They take it for granted without realizing the good it can do for them. It is up to the government to provide equal and quality education available to everyone, regardless of color and class. However, that is not the case in Detroit Public Schools. The Detroit schools are in terrible conditions. The buildings are deteriorating, there is a lack of sanitization, a lack of school supplies, such as books and many other health concerns. Not only that but the school’s educational quality is decreasing as many teachers leave and school officials are caught in scandals. The Movement,

Detroit schools have been bashed in the media due to unsanitary facilities, low test scores, mishandling money, teacher strikes, and subpar student behavior. The media, with help from certain educators, pinpoint the DPS system’s failures because the students which walk past cracking doors and over mold infested floors shall be the future leaders, bankers, consumers, lawyers, doctors, or presidents of America. They will replace the founding fathers, creating their own ideas of inalienable rights and personal freedom. These are the reasons schools need to improve. However, schools in Detroit can only improve if students are met with a healthy fear of failure, a healthy learning environment, and the reconstruction of standardized test based on each individual.

The Manufactured Crisis written by David C. Berliner and Bruce J. Biddle is a book disproving the horrible reputation America’s education system has been given by the media and by the government. Americans have almost been programmed to believe that the public school systems are failing and that in order to make their children successful they have to be sent to private schools. The Manufactured Crisis is a well written book jammed packed full of research and observation that overwhelming disproves the myths and bashing of public school systems.

It’s no secret that the economy has not been the best in the past five or so years, and a lot of schools have taken the hardest hit from that. Public schools have had to cut many different programs and areas of study because it is simply just too expensive to teach all of them and provide the correct materials for the students. This is causing the quality of students education to go down, and they aren’t receiving all of the benefits that they should be. The education that a student receives starting in elementary school and all the way up into high schools sets them up for how they will do in college, and that will determine how they are going to live the rest of their lives.

Budget cuts in schools cause turmoil and stress among the students and faculty. Drastic changes in the budgets have caused schools to negatively impact the people around them. With the lack of funding, schools are facing difficult decisions on what to do to stay within their budget. Supervision is facing much scrutiny on how to handle the lack of funding in their school districts. A solution needs to be made to improve the distribution of funding to our schools in order to keep them operating and thriving for our children to obtain their education. Budget cuts in schools have shown negative effects on employee positions, supplies, extracurricular activities.

Problems facing the public schools. The general satisfaction with the public schools should not cause one to lose sight of the fact that the public wants those schools improved. It would be logical for such improvement to focus on areas in which problems exist. Down through the years, the public has been consistent in the area which shows lack of discipline. Other points of either drug abuse, lack of financial support, or lack of discipline has topped the list. This year, lack of discipline is identified as the top problem. Fighting/violence/gangs follows at high on the list and lack of financial support/funding/money is also an issue. Teachers and classroom sizes are recognized as a ongoing problem in public education.

Education reform is a topic that every student, parent and teacher should be interested in because it effects everyone in the community. Many different approaches to education reform have been tried, and even though they seem to work for the time being, there are always more improvements that need to be made. One of the best ideas that has been discussed in the most recent years is getting the parents and students more involved in the actual reform process. Many school administrators see a problem with involving students, even though they are the ones most affected by the changes within schools. Student’s opinions should be taken into consideration because they are the ones who see what happens inside the school and within the classroom, and are the most affected by it. Involving parents and students in the reform of their schools will improve the quality of education, improve parent and teacher relationships and reduce parent and student complaints.