Detroit News: On Educational Reforms

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Legislature should back real educational reforms

As Michigan's legislative session draws to a close this week, Lansing is a hotbed of deal-making on school reform. Everyone from Gov. Jennifer Granholm to Detroit and western Michigan lawmakers agree the state needs to act to address its growing education crisis.

But not all of the ideas on the table deliver real reform.

The new energy focused on education is sparked largely by the impending collapse of the Detroit Public Schools. State policy makers' guiding goal should be the creation of academically high-performing schools -- particularly high schools -- in all of Michigan's urban centers.

Some of the pending legislation serves that mission. Other bills would do the opposite.
Here is a look at existing or soon-to-be-introduced bills -- and which ones would best serve urban students:

• This month the House passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Bettie Cook Scott, D-Detroit, that would reward Detroit for its abysmal academic performance.

The Scott bill would reduce Detroit's state enrollment threshold for qualifying as a "first-class school district" to 60,000 students. The status provides special funding benefits and protections from more charter school creation in the city.

The threshold for such status has been an enrollment of 100,000. This fall, the district fell below that mark to about 94,000 students.

The last legacy this legislature should leave is the protection of one of America's worst school districts. The Senate should vote no.

• One of the highlights of this legislative session is the evolution of Detroit lawmakers on the issue of school improvement.

Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Detroit, is percolating on legislation that would help Detroit's remaining Catholic schools survive.

Lutheran and Catholic urban schools have significantly higher student achievement rates than other schools do, but they are losing students during this economic crisis. In Washington, D.C., some Catholic schools have been converting to charter schools while giving up their religious nature. Johnson is considering a bill to allow some Detroit parochial schools to undergo a similar modification. This makes good policy sense.

• Several lawmakers are supporting legislation to allow state Superintendent Mike Flanagan to close perennially low-performing schools. In Michigan some schools have failed since the 1960s. This is outrageous. The legislature should pass this bill.

• Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, the House Education Committee chairman, is proposing local school officials and the state superintendent be allowed to contract out the management of chronically failing schools. The Michigan Education Association is fighting this bill, because it may threaten unionized staff, bargaining and teacher tenure.

That is precisely the reason why the legislature must pass it. Failing schools need a teacher quality catalyst. The union is morally wrong to protect bad teachers.

• While we applaud new efforts to close bad schools, urban districts also need more good ones. Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, has been working to do provide more education options. His work must be supported.

• Michigan would be prudent to follow California's lead. The Golden State allows a majority of parents or teachers to vote to turnover their public school's operations to a qualified management organization.

Legislators worried about management quality should propose the state superintendent create a list of approved operators from which teachers and parents could choose.

Lawmakers are focused on education, and that's a good thing. Their challenge is producing bills that deliver real reform.