Dr. Connie Calloway, the new superintendent who has spent her first year digging through dirt and incompetence and traditions that don't make sense, revealed some startling news two weeks ago during an interview:It's time to separate education from state.The Detroit Public School system exists to loot the taxpayers,nothing more.
She confirmed what critics have known for some time, that DPS is not graduating nearly two-thirds of its students.
She confirmed that 22 of the city's 27 high schools did not make required annual yearly progress -- required progress.
She confirmed that DPS has been rife with such incompetence that students did not receive textbooks at the start of the year for 19 years.
She confirmed that the FBI investigation into DPS is not over.
And she confirmed that the district's budget is about the same as it was eight years ago, even though the number of employees and students has dropped by a third. In 2000, the district spent $1.2 billion to pay 21,203 employees to serve 154,648 students. Last school year, the district spent the same amount of money to pay 15,535 employees and serve 105,000 students. What is being done with the extra money?
After those revelations, parents did not march, teachers did not rally, and Detroit legislators did not hold news conferences to say enough is enough.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Detroit Public Schools:The Scam So Immense
The Detroit Free Press reports: