Can education be saved in Detroit?

It's that time of the year again. Students around the nation have begun filing into their classrooms for the start of the 2009-10 academic year. In Michigan, the questions most critical to their future academic achievements might not appear in any exams, but instead be tasked to the administrators and politicians in whose charge they have been placed. As the state confronts a budget deficit of approximately $2.7 billion, education spending is increasingly viewed as a target for cutbacks by lawmakers in Lansing. The problem is particularly dire where it is especially vulnerable.

Despite the widely publicized, $500,000 "I'm In" pupil retention campaign occurring in Detroit, there has been a continuing exodus of schoolchildren away from its K-12 elementary school system (ABC 7 Action News). The district emergency financial manager Robert Bobb has prepared the 2009-10 budget anticipating 83,777 pupils, 16,223 fewer than necessary to secure "first class" status for Detroit public schools (Id.). The designation is significant for protecting the district against the encroachment of charter schools which have increasingly been viewed by parents as an attractive alternative to the city's beleaguered public school system. Bill Cosby's recent visit to Detroit as part of the "I'm In" campaign was directed principally at this problem. The actor and activist made door-to-door visits to area parents exhorting them to keep their children in the system and lauding the efforts of Mr. Bobb and the school board in reforming the elementary education system (Id.).
Highlighting the difficulty of this effort is the fact that public school aid is calculated according to the number of enrolled students (Detroit News). In the budget being contemplated by Lansing, aid to Michigan schools stands to be reduced by $483 million, or about $218 per pupil, for the remainder of the school year. Among the other measures being considered are a 25% reduction in early childhood grants, and the elimination of Governor Jennifer Granholm's small high schools initiative (Id.). The usual casualties of education cutbacks: afterschool programs, student to teacher ratios, centers and facilities closures, among others, are taken for granted along with the actual educational damage that they each entail. The $18.6 million dollar cut designated for Detroit public schools is the most significant of all district reductions in Michigan (Detroit Free Press). Notwithstanding the city's own $18.6 million budget deficit, and the stark possibility of bankruptcy still looming in the offing, we will see whether the city can be resilient in the face of further financial malaise. Are you in?