Students walk out to protest school closings

When the Detroit School Board announced that 34 schools would not reopen in September 2005, students at Chadsey High voted with their feet. They walked out. Students at Communication and Media Arts (CMA) reinforced that message the next day by walking out in even larger numbers. Chadsey and CMA are the only two high schools to be closed. Elementary schools with high academic performance are also in jeopardy.

The closings are part of an announced "Deficit Elimination Plan" required by and submitted to the Michigan State Depart ment of Education on Feb. 4. But what right does the current School Board have to close schools?

The current board is the unelected remnant of a take-over board installed five years ago. In the November 2004 election, the Black community overwhelmingly demanded and won its right to elect its school board.

How can this rejected body overrule the students, community, unions and parent-teacher organizations who want to keep their schools open?

This take-over board ran through a $1.5-billion construction bond issue and a Detroit Public School (DPS) District budget surplus, creating the current deficit, which exceeds $200 million. They are responsible for laying off teachers and support staff. Aramark, a high cost anti-union company, was brought in to replace school custodians with more than 20 years of experience.

A "deficit elimination plan" proposes to reduce Detroit school spending by more than $560 million over the next five years, with the closing of 60 to 75 additional schools. According to the Detroit Public Schools website (www.detroit.k12.mi.us), the plan includes eliminating 4,000 jobs. The plan claims to adjust for an anticipated 25.2-percent decline in revenues and a drop in student enrollment from 140,000 to 100,000 by 2008/2009.

The severity of cuts the district is proposing is "pretty much unprecedented in Michigan, even during the Depression," said Jeffrey Mirel, a University of Michigan professor and Detroit schools historian. (Detroit News, Feb. 10)

Taking advantage of this latest public education crisis, proponents of privatizing education through charter schools have revived a plan that was beaten back last year. Former paving contractor Bob Thompson, who is famous for giving the bulk of the profits from the sale of his company to the workers, is again offering $200 million for Detroit charter schools.

In a new twist, the money will be handled by African American business owner and former basketball player Dave Bing. His participation is a ploy to make the plan more palatable to the majority African American community, which highly values educational opportunities and has thus far resisted the charter school movement.

There is a different and effective way to approach meeting educational needs. At a recent Jan. 21 New York Workers World Party meeting, Alicia Gonzalez from the Federation of Cuban Women described how Cuba maintained and expanded educational opportunities during tough economic times in the 1990s.

Gonzalez reported that transportation shortages made it difficult for students to travel to the central universities. In keeping with the Cuban government's commitment to universal free education, the schools were brought to the neighborhoods.

According to "Cuba: Beyond Our Dreams," a book published as a manual for Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC) union organizers, Cuba manages "975 schools with 10 or fewer students, 656 with 5 or less, 128 with 3 or less and 76 with only one student." Every child has a school. Classes have no more than 20 students in elementary grades and 15 in secondary school.

What if the Detroit school decision-making process was turned on its head? Instead of starting from the budget, start from the need for quality education and solve the problems to achieve that goal. Every one of the 34 schools now slated to be closed could be kept open and put into full use. Turning the DPS budget deficit into a surplus only takes two days of the $4.5-billion-a-month Iraq war budget.

"Cuba: Beyond Our Dreams"
is available from www.leftbooks.com.