Amber Arellano

Detroit schools' moment?

Union and school leaders rally teachers to embrace change

You could almost feel the hunger to hope.

Thousands of teachers poured into Detroit's Cobo Center Tuesday morning, waving homemade school flags and buzzing with excitement. They were so geared up, they seemed as if they were the ones who are supposed to graduate from school this spring.

The 6,000-plus crowd came to an unprecedented rally to discuss major reforms to their teacher union contract, a move that is necessary to radically overhaul Detroit schools for the sake of the city's children.

This could not have happened even a few months ago. But things are moving forward swiftly -- and positively -- in Detroit public education for the first time in decades.

Robert Bobb, the miracle worker known as the Detroit Public Schools' emergency financial manager, is cleaning up the district's cesspool of corruption. He is firing dictatorial, incompetent administrators. He is closing half-empty schools and designing new ones.

And to many observers' great surprise, the Detroit Federation of Teachers -- one of the country's most regressive, militant local teacher unions -- actually took a step into the 21st century on Tuesday by co-hosting a historic conversation about union reforms that are boosting student achievement in other U.S. big cities.

So significant was this week's rally, national American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten flew to Motown to urge her members to support reform. The national AFT leaders have been downright embarrassed by the Detroit local's obstructionist reputation.

The rally came on the eve of contract talks between Bobb and the union. Powerful people are pushing the union to significantly amend its contract, including President Barack Obama's administration, which has made clear if Detroit wants education stimulus money to overhaul its sorry schools, it has to show Washington it is truly ready to change.

The question so many teachers wondered on Tuesday, they admitted: Will these reforms take hold?

This time, can we really hope?

Mixed signs

The answer: The signs are mixed. Certainly Bobb's common sense leadership is making a difference.

There's also a new alignment of philosophies and goals shared by Bobb and to some extent, union leaders. That was evident Tuesday as they rapped on Cobo's stage. Bobb said he shared educators' weariness about the commitment of Detroit adults' to their children.

"I haven't heard a conversation in this city where adults talk about student achievement," Bobb said. "They talk about who among their fraternities and sororities are going to keep their jobs" with the district.

He added with fire: "We have too much politics. And as my grandma would say, too much self-centeredness!"

"Yeah!" teachers cheered.

Despite the upbeat tone, the usual Detroit clouds were lurking on Tuesday. Detroit Federation of Teachers Keith Johnson spoke for a powerful internal union faction as he bashed (all too predictably) outsiders such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the press, rather than taking greater responsibility for his union's obvious role in the district's pathetically low student performance.

He even took a few potshots at Duncan, who visited Detroit earlier this month and offered the Obama administration's support to improve Motown's schools.

This was particularly ironic -- and sad -- considering Detroiters have complained for years that the feds haven't cared about the city. Finally, a president shows direct interest, and Johnson thumbs his nose at Duncan -- the very leader who will decide whether Detroit will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus money.

Wearily hopeful

Still, it was striking to hear teachers speak enthusiastically about their schools' future, a rarity for many educators here. One senior teacher told me for the first time in her 30-year-plus career, "I believe we can do it."

The weariness, the apathy, the skepticism that has grown over Detroit over decades, choking its belief in its ability to do things better, was still present on Tuesday.

Yet for the first time in my experience covering Detroit education, off and on, over more than 15 years, these killers of progress were balanced, however temporarily, by a new and fragile sense of hope.

Amber Arellano covers educational policy for the Detroit News editorial board and writes a weekly online column. E-mail her at aarellano@detnews.com