One Quarter Of Detroit Public Schools To Close In June
We can't believe it's come to this.
A quarter of Detroit's public schools are set to close in June due to declining enrollment and a $219 million budget deficit.
By June, 44 out of 172 schools will close, followed by 6 more by June of 2011. Last fall, the district also closed 29 schools.
And it's terrible for parents!
A mother whose daughter's school is set to close in June, reveals:
"I am not happy about it, but the population of the city is shrinking and the people who have the means are moving out. You've got to give DPS a chance. You've got to give Detroit a chance. I'm trying to."
The school closures fall into a $1 billion, five-year plan to downsize the district. With fewer than 900,000 living in Detroit, they are looking to improve education, test scores and student safety with the kids they have left.
More than half the seats in a dozen schools are empty! Enrollment from pre-k to 12th grade has decreased from 164,500 in 2002-03 to just 87,700 for the current school year. And it's expected to dip to 56,500 in 2014.
So sad.
[Image via AP Images.]
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THIS is why politicians need questioning, regardless of if they're President or not.
This is reeeally bad. If we lose the car industry, our only major exports will be intellectual properties (which is bullshit in the grand scheme of world politics) and raw materials (which makes us, by definition, a third world country). This is why the media has been ALL OVER Toyota for the malfunctioning cars, because it's something that makes American cars look better than foreign by comparison. We seriously need to get Detroit back on track pronto, or else our country is fucked.
What does this have to do with celebrity gossip?
yeah, just keep donating to those other countries, cuz, well, you know…..they need it more……..
A quarter? Bloody Hell. Those poor kids.
If my school closed (I live in the UK) we'd have one hell of a problem, because there's over 3000 people there, not including staff.
Oh well it's not like the ones that graduate can even read and like the ones that can read can even find a job. Guess that's what happens when govt. gets involved in paying assembly line workers $90.00 an hour.
This is what happens when you let liberals run anything. Watch how the liberals have run states like California, NJ, NY ,Michigan, etc….they will bankrupt them all and their social experiments will prove disasterous.
This really breaks my heart. I was born in Detroit, and that city is so amazing, filled with amazing people… I really wish someone could step in and help D town back on its feet… That city deserves it.
There are not enough people actually living in the city to keep these schools open. There are a large number of neighborhoods out there with only a few people living on an entire block. This is leading to a lot of crime and vandalism. People are leaving because the city is a mess. I lived in Detroit for 20 years and I will never move back. The taxes are insane and you can't even get them to pick up your trash or plow the snow out of the street. Insurance rates are impossible to pay. Grocery stores are hard to find and when you find them the food is rotten. I tried to stay because it was my hometown, but when my father was shot by some cracked up teenagers I decide my entire family needed to move to the suburbs. However, even the suburbs in Michigan have a lot of problems now. Someone really needs to fix this area of the country fast.
Anybody who can afford to won't send their kids to public schools in Detroit, something violent happens and rather than being good parents, the parents of the attacker come in screaming that their baby would never do that. Expell the violent kids, keep the schools safe and women wouldn't be working 3 jobs to send their kids to private school there.
at first i was astonished by the headline…and then i read on and it makes sense since there is a declining enrollment rate and people are moving the fuck outta that God forsaken city(no offense to all the Detroities) plus the whole Nation is going down the toilet:(
first of all the union autoworkers didn't make $90/hr. and if you can afford to, you move to the burbs. people are leaving the city b/c it's a shithole. this is what they do when there is declining enrollment and less tax base to have the $$ to operate. why keep two half full schools open when you can combine them and have one? our state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation!
what is SAD about it. Do you get the article????? It is happening all around the country. People are leaving cities that are bad. That leaves schools that are EMPTY or half empty. There is a city in Kansas with the same story and parents are protesting too, but the student enrollment dropped more than in HALF. Keeping up buildings that are decades old and in decline cost a fortune, not to mention heating and cooling. And yes, teachers are being let go, but again, the ENROLLMENT DROPPED TO LESS THAN HALF OF WHAT IT WAS A DECADE AGO. The best thing to do is to bring the students all together and spend the money on the fewer, newer schools, instead of a larger group of older, antiquated ones. Yes, it is nice to go to school on your block, but what if that school is 70 years old, run down, has gangs and is in general disrepair? Schools cost millions to run. This country has borrowed money, not just 'THE LAST ADMINISTRATION' , like obama likes to throw out, but for decades, and decades. All gov'ts like using money they don't have and it has caught up with Wall Street's collapse. Unfortunately, our federal gov't hasn't gotten the memo yet.
Detroit's population is shrinking and has been for years. Some neighborhoods have one lone resident amidst numerous vacant houses. Detroit is looking to move these people and return vast tracks of land to farmland (as it is usable vs. previously industrial land) to hopefully bring jobs and people back. You can't have a school with 1/4 full classrooms. It's not cost effective nor is it fair to children. It's very sad. A decade of decline coupled with corrupt politicians and this is what you get.
Re: poopdiddy2008 –
No welcome to the Republican near-depression. You dumb fucks can't see what the GOP has been doing for 25 years to erradicate the middle class. You deserve what they've doled out, but don't drag every other thinking citizen with you. Try reading something and not getting your "news" from Fox. Jeez, what a dumb ass!
It's not possible to give Detroit a chance without risking your life. I live in a suburb of Detroit and the last time we tried to go downtown we were within 200 feet of a shooting and couldn't even attend the event we were going to because of it. A year or two ago my Dad was mugged while on the way to a bar in Detroit for his high school reunion. Detroit has potential to be a booming place again, but the crime is just way too out of control! There are so many times where there are events we WANT to attend downtown, events we would spend economically stimulating MONEY to see (the little bit we have left…), but it's so dangerous it's not even worth it to go! And if you do, your night will end up being ruined for one reason or another.
Let me tell you something about schools Perez, i come from a small town with 2 high schools and it used to be 10 elementary schools, since i've graduated elementary school over 10 years ago, the one i went to and so many more have closed down and the ones that are left are being cut by half, and they are getting rid of a high school. So wanna talk about Detroit? Come up to Northern BC and see the education epidemic taking place here, at least in the states there is options, up here, we have to move.
Anyone who has ever BEEN to Detroit and seen these schools would agree that they need to be shut down. The city is a cesspool. I live about twenty minutes away and even that is too close.
I live near Detroit and my dad is actually on the school board in Detroit. No one lives there. We have this thing called School of Choice and most people commute to the suburbs.
BULLSHIT there just doing this to keep more "minorities" on the streets. why dont they go close schools in Beverly hills
I honestly hope Detroit gets back on its feet and becomes the great city it once was. I love that city and it kills me to see this happening to it, and I am getting sick of people talking bad about that city when they have never even stepped foot in it.
Give it a chance, and like another person commented already, I think it's ridiculous that all these celebrities donate millions and millions of dollars to other countries when they are blind to the fact that places here in the U.S.A need their help just as much.
All these people saying how "sad" or "unfair" this is, need to reread the article. Detroit just doesn't have the enrollment rates to keep so many schools open. It's not sad, it's how the school system works. Closing the schools isn't taking education away from any children (although it may make commuting to sschool and back more difficult).
Sorry, what this really means is that the poor misfortunate children of detroit will start leaking into the suburbs and lowering our GOOD school districts test scores, and bringing home values down further. Although it is sad for the children, it will truly only lead to the demise of other well respected cities nearby….
Re: MsJoanne – you got that right. Bill Moyers had an excellent piece on PBS a while back about the short memory of the majority of Americans. That, coupled with the absolute credulity that the right wing spin machine is greeted with is why the U.S. is in the mess it's in today.
OBAMA IS GUNNA PUT GAS IN MY CAR!!! haha
Re: poopdiddy2008 – could you please enumerate what high crimes and misdemeanors Obama has committed to warrant an impeachment?
.
I mean it's not like he bullshitted us into a trillion dollar war financed by China that cost thousands of U.S. military lives + hundreds of thousands of foreigners lives…
.
So embarrassing that I have to share my country with braid dead morons like you.
I don't blame people for getting out of that Hell pit. I've been thru Detroit, and it was the dirtiest, most litter strewn ghetto I've ever seen. I seriously thought that anyone who raised their kids there should be charged with child abuse, it's really no place for children to live.
while you are driving your japanese car to the unemployment office, you can discuss it with the other unemployed people how this could have happened(if you can find one that speaks English)
By Fall 2010, the Kansas City, Missouri school district will have closed 29 of it's 61 schools. Almost half!!!!
Now THIS is something that Mr. Obama should be trying to deal with - NOT Tiger Wood's relationship woes……….
It's truly a tragedy that we think we've made it so far since the Civil Rights movement.
Social class and race plays an immense role in keeping public schools under the reign of local taxes.
Look at East Saint Louis.
Part of it is that the teacher's union wrecked the schools and people are sending their kids to private schools
But I hope that people are being smart and having fewer kids and taking better care of them. Because breeding like insects just hurts kids
So, where are all the celebrities NOW?! I guess Detroit isn't "cool" enough, or you can't take your purse-dog with you…?
Re: PixiePeet – Good question… Perhaps Perez is hoping that rich slugs like the Kardashian K–ts actually read this site, and will fork over some cash? Or maybe Paris Hilton will sell a dog house and open a school for girls?
Hard to say. It's quite sad, however. A sign that the US is in for a MAJOR fall into scumville all over if something isn't done.
And the Demi-crats ain't gonna do it.
The sooner USA collapses the better. I lost my job because of your greedy corporations and your scumbag republican deregulators. It is OK for corporation to have freedom to swindle people out of their money, homes and health insurance, but an individual doesn't have the right to marry whom he/she wants or smoke pot. If Jefferson, Franklin and Adams were alive today they would emigrate.
Re: Melissa! – Helping Detroit is a matter of MONEY and CORRUPT POLITICS; stupid teenagers driving downtown and not being aware of their surroundings doesn't mean Detroit can't be helped. What an enormously ignorant comment. (and I'm from Grosse Pointe, so I know how "bad" and dangerous Detroit is compared to the pretty suburbs)
Want to know why Detroit is such a mess?
Everyone running the city is corrupt.
The governor is a liberal CANADIAN, the former mayor is a legit CRIMINAL, and the Detroit school board is a joke!
I would NEVER send my child to a Detroit public school - I would pay for a private school or send them to a good charter.
Why is it so sad? It sounds like they are doing what needs to be done so the kids that ARE left in the city get a better education in better facilities, rather than scattering stretched resources to a bunch of different half empty schools!
Anyone who is from Michigan or been to Detroit can tell you it feels desolate there, most anyone that can moves to other areas.
this is horrible.
Re: MsJoanne –
F U
Finally! Detroit should have done this 20 years ago….with declining enrollment, even back then, the writing was on the wall. Why did the wait so long? No students = No schools, people!
First Kansas City, now Detroit - which big urban city is next?
Re: PissedAtHomoSapiens – You sound bitter… and FUCK YOU!
you can't believe its come to this!?!?! that's because nobody (including you) cares about Detroit. i mean, thanks for the help but its too little too late.
Re: laurenanney – You can make it as large of an issue as you want, but when the time comes that the larger issue (say for example, opening 10 new factories in the city) actually makes it onto the smaller, local scale (the 10 factories are now in place and need workers) it doesn't matter one bit that there are 10 new factories open if the streets are too dangerous for those new workers to get to them. People can throw as much money at the city of Detroit as they want, it's not going to help. It needs to start at the local level by locking up the criminals and getting the delinquents off the streets. But since the crime goes all the way up to the City Council (Monica Conyers, anyone??) I don't see that happening anytime soon. Blame it on the uneducated, racist citizens of Detroit who would rather vote a corrupt person into office just because he's black (hello Kwame) than opening the door for a good leader of any color.
More than half the public schools in Kansas City are going to close. This is a nationwide problem.
Re: PixiePeet – It's Perez's blog, he can post whatever he wants, no matter what the website's tagline is.
there are 2 reasons this country's in shambles…
1. the government doesn't care about this country. why? because they've already got us under control. they've already got control of the OIL and the PEOPLE. the reason we go to other countries and help is to make the rich and corrupt richer and more powerful. and why is it working?…
2. the public is fucking stupid. we believe all the bullshit they spew at us, and we spend our money how they tell us to. no one saves money…they buy video games and go to movies. we make the rich richer. we blow money everywhere but where it'll help our local economy. people spend way beyond their means just to have things everyone can live without. and the most amusing part is the dumb shit we spend the most on is the same shit the rich don't even have to pay for! its cars and games and clothes and jewelry and movies. its sad and i wish we could all wise up and stop helping them fuck us!
No money for schools, yet they are about to spend 1 trillon dollars on healthcare?!?!?!? Great!!!
maybe some of those celeberties could spend a little money in their own country to get the school system out of the whole, but I guess they don't see a problem with the poor and homeless of where they live. This has always been a big issue with me, why not support your own before you help others. No one is going to come to our rescue down the road you can bet on that one.
We really need to get Detroit back on its feet. Downsizing the amount of schools right now probably is for the best. Yes, it's going to suck, but if it means it can get progressively better, then maybe it's a good thing. I used to live near Detroit, and I've always had fun there…except the bad neighborhoods. I've had friends from some pretty terrible areas of Jersey, and they're terrified of Detroit. Yes, it makes me laugh a little, however, that town needs some serious help. If that city and its industry goes completely down, then the rest of the country will soon follow, and that is a guarantee. I don't want to see that happen.
that's your President's policies at work! enjoy the change fuckers!
Re: liberameya – American school systems do need more money to improve the standard of education in your country, but funding isn't the issue with schools in Detroit. It's clearly outlined in this article that the schools are being closed due to the decline in enrollment. So really, the money being spent on health care right now has nothing to do with the closing of schools in Detroit.
I will always LOVE DETROIT . I miss it so bad .. But it is what it is .. The WHOLE WORLD IS GOING DOWN .. GOD HELP US ALL
Detroit is a shithole. This is coming from someone who works in the city. It's getting progressively worse. What do you expect from a city full of people who don't give a rip?