Sunday, October 24, 2004

Detroit school reform hits roadblocks

Loss of students has cost district $110M in state funding since takeover in 1999

By Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News

Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

Beyond the debate about the outcome of the Detroit Public Schools reform, experts and school officials agree that efforts were hampered by a 65 percent increase in Metro Detroit charter enrollment, state funding cuts and continuing population loss.

“It has made the challenges Detroit faces all more severe,” said David Plank, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University. “It would have taken a miracle. No more money, perpetual political conflict, constant loss of students.

“We didn’t get a miracle.”

Since the 1999 takeover, enrollment in Metro Detroit charter schools has grown to nearly 43,000 at the end of last school year. Detroit lost 16,000 students between August 1999 and May 2004, which amounts to a state funding loss of more than $110 million.

District CEO Kenneth Burnley acknowledges the loss of students hurt the district.

“It throttled what we are attempting to do,” Burnley said. “Let’s be real about that.”

In addition, over the last five years, schools-of-choice districts have increased, allowing Detroit students to transfer to other nearby public school districts.

Karen Peters decided to transfer her two sons to charters this year. She said class sizes are too large.

“I think it’s going further downhill,” Peters said. “Parents are not pleased.”

John Engler, who as governor orchestrated the district’s takeover, said charters have helped improve education in the city. And those who complain Detroit shouldn’t have had to compete during the reform aren’t facing reality, he said.

“That’s not the way the world works — ‘Let me take a timeout from the competition for five years, 10 years while I get better,’ ” Engler said. “You either compete or you perish.”

District officials say the loss of students and the state dollars attached to them is compounded by three years state funding cuts. Michigan school districts have lost about $370 million in state money over the past two years.

Detroit recently laid off more than 2,100 employees and used almost all of its more than $70 million rainy-day fund.

Along with the district’s financial problems, some say Burnley has never been able to get around the distrust created when the state took over the schools. Many blacks believed their right to vote was stripped from them by a white governor and predominantly white Legislature.

“The Legislature badly, badly underestimated ... how deep the anger would be,” said Jeffrey Mirel, author of “The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System,” a book about Detroit schools.

Residents will vote Nov. 2 on how the district will be governed. Those fighting for an empowered school board say they want the same rights to elect board members as all other residents.

“There is nothing wrong with the old pathway,” the Rev. Joseph Jordan, president of the Council of Baptist Pastors, told a crowd at a recent “Vote No” rally. “It depends on who is walking on the pathway.”

You can reach Christine MacDonald at (313) 222-2269 or cmacdonald@detnews.com.