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Schools of Choice bill coming

Legislature likely to get proposal this week as foes from Detroit, suburbs gear for fight

By CECIL ANGEL FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

   An education reform package that includes mandatory Schools of Choice and cyber schools could be introduced in the state Legislature as early as Wednesday, the chairman of the state Senate Education Committee said.

   “It’s a good possibility on Wednesday, the 24th, we’ll have part of the package ready for introduction,” said state Sen. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair Township.

   The education package also addresses charter school caps and school aid. The package is part of Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed “Any Time, Any Place, Any Way, Any Pace” public school learning model.

   Education Committee hearings on the package will begin Sept. 7, Pavlov said.

   Mandatory Schools of Choice is emerging as the most controversial part of the education package.

   Opposition is strong in the heavily Republican Grosse Pointes. In heavily Democratic Detroit, three legislators have said they are opposed to state-mandated Schools of Choice because, they said, it will negatively impact Detroit Public Schools.

   “I don’t want the state to help usher children from one community to another at the expense of the community where they are,” said state Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, whose district includes the Grosse Pointes and part of Detroit.

   State Sen. Coleman A. Young II, D-Detroit, said every proposal out of Lansing that was supposed to help DPS has hurt it. He cited the 1999 state takeover that was supposed to improve the district academically.

   At the time, the district had 180,000 students, a $93-million fund balance and a $1.5-billion bond project. Under state control, DPS wound up with a $200-million deficit, he said.

   “I don’t think the state should be imposing another mandate on the city or any other city,” Young said.

   State Rep. Lisa Howze, D-Detroit, said mandatory Schools of Choice “would further impact DPS’s ability to stabilize.”

   Last week, the Grosse Pointe Woods City Council passed a resolution against mandated Schools of Choice.

   The Grosse Pointe Woods-based Michigan Communities For Local Control has set up a Web site at www.miclc.com   and is contacting other school districts to build opposition.

   Peter Spadafore, assistant director of government relations for the Michigan Association of School Boards, said the MASB has been talking with the Snyder administration and legislators about the bill.

   Based on the ongoing discussion, the bill likely will include “universal choice K-12 up to capacity. The problem is how to define capacity,” he said.

   Spadafore said the MASB is opposed to mandatory Schools of Choice. “We feel that decision should be made by the local school district,” he said. “By mandating Schools of Choice, it’s just a solution looking for a problem.”

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Failing schools won’t be in DPS

New authority to take control under changes Snyder will detail today

By DAVID JESSE, CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY and CHRIS CHRISTOFF FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

   Gov. Rick Snyder will create an authority to run several failing Detroit public schools as part of sweeping changes to be announced today for the city’s struggling school system, sources said Sunday.

   The plan would restructure the failing Detroit Public Schools, which has a $327-million deficit on an operating budget of about $1.5 billion, by moving its underperforming schools under an authority to be run by the district’s emergency manager, Roy Roberts, according to sources. Schools would qualify for the new system if they are deemed below certain academic standards by the Michigan Department of Education

   A law passed this year gives emergency managers new powers to control academics and finances, and to cancel or modify union contracts. The process of instituting new work rules at the schools could take a year, sources familiar with the discussions said.

   A southeast Michigan university, widely believed in higher education circles to be Eastern Michigan University, also would be involved, to do teacher training in the schools.

   There were no details Sunday about exactly how the new authority would work. Details were not being released by anyone in advance of a news conference scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Renaissance High School in Detroit.

   However, sources did say that the Broad Foundation and other philanthropic organizations will pump significant amounts of money into the new authority. According to sources, Snyder has had several meetings with Eli Broad, the founder of the foundation, which is dedicated to education reform and has assets of more than $2 billion.

   Broad grew up in Detroit and graduated from Michigan State University. He made a fortune in construction and insurance and has been a major MSU benefactor.

   It’s unclear exactly how many DPS schools would be transferred to a new authority. DPS already has a program under way that would close or convert to charter about half its schools.

   Under the plan to be announced Monday, DPS schools not labeled as underperforming would remain under the authority of Roberts, a former top executive at General Motors, in the same manner as they are today. There are no plans to dissolve the school board, sources said.

   U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected to take part via a live feed from Washington, D.C., in today’s announcement. State schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan will attend.

   DPS officials issued a three-line advisory Sunday afternoon, noting only that a news conference would be held to discuss “education reform.”

   The governor’s office said Snyder would participate in a news conference at Renaissance, joined by Roberts.

   Members of the DPS board of education, which has no authority because of the governor’s appointment of Roberts, said they were in the dark about the plan.

   School board members reached by phone Sunday said that the board secretary contacted them about 7 p.m. Friday to say that Roberts wanted to meet with them Monday. However, they were not told the subject of the meeting and were not told that there would be a news conference.

   Board member LaMar Lemmons III said, “Wow,” when told that Snyder and Duncan would participate in a news conference about DPS restructuring.

   He said he plans to attend the meeting this morning with Roberts and four other board members.

   “I hope we’re going to meet for them to say they’re going to eradicate the deficit created by the reform effort and the emergency financial manager, and that the district will be fully empowered so that we can refresh,” he said.

   “I don’t know. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

   Member Carla Scott said some board members were concerned that a meeting with the full board needed to be announced publicly or it would violate the state’s Open Meetings Act.

   As of Sunday afternoon, she said she did not plan to attend.

   “I’m not going to break the law,” Scott said.

   But Scott added: “I just hope they’re going to do something that’s going to make schools better for children.”

   Anthony Adams, the board president, could not be reached.

   • CONTACT DAVID JESSE: 313-222-8851

   OR DJESSE@FREEPRESS.COM  

PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder is to hold a news conference on Detroit Public Schools at 11 a.m. today at Renaissance High School.

ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

DPS emergency manager Roy Roberts is to be given the authority to make new work rules at failing schools.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is to attend the news conference on DPS today via video.

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Jeb Bush shares ideas on education reform

   Describing the 2012 presidential election as ugly, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was happy to quiet the drumbeat of some who hoped he might still run on the GOP side.

   “I intend to support whoever the party decides should be the nominee,” Bush, 58-yearold younger brother of former President George W. Bush and son of President George H.W. Bush, said during a stop in Lansing.

   Bush , who started his Foundation for Educational Excellence in Florida, ( www   .excelined.org  ), was invited by Lansing legislators to talk about reforms in his state and lessons that might translate for Michigan.

   Bush told me between meetings he was flattered by the attention and others drawing comparisons to Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was recruited by the GOP to run decades earlier.

   “But I’m not Dwight Eisenhower who was a war hero who saved our country. It was logical for him to be called into duty,” he said.

   He also talked about his brother, who left the White House amid anemic popularity ratings.

   “He has handled the post-presidency well as a former president should do but don’t always,” he said.

   “History will treat him favorably,” he said. “When you hear how they took out Osama (Bin Laden) it was through techniques criticized when he was president that were used and helped identify leads that led to his killing.”

   Crossing the nation

   For now, Bush, who served as Florida governor from 1999 to 2007, seems content in his role as educational reform pied piper as he crisscrosses the nation.

   He has been a champion for reform long before he ran for public office, saying “it also translates into economic opportunities that help communities.”

   Bush had a private meeting with Gov. Rick Snyder, who said in April he would announce more education reforms on issues like early education.

   “A quality, cutting-edge education system that gives teachers and students the tools to succeed is critical as we enter the new Michigan,” Snyder said during a joint appearance with Bush. “Michigan’s future depends on our success.”

   Bush plans to issue a national report card this fall with a breakdown of states on digital learning.

   “Those states that open up access to digital learning will be the ones with the biggest gains,” he said.

   Bush also talked of unions and his view of them as impediments to reforms.

   “They are there to protect their members and the status quo,” he said.

   Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, took issue and said much of the reforms are about “breaking the union” and have nothing to do with improving the classroom.

   Betsy DeVos, longtime supporter of vouchers and giving more choice on schools, said Michigan made inroads on charters in the 1990s but is lagging behind other states.

   • CONTACT CAROL CAIN: 313-222-6732 OR CLCAIN@CBS.COM  . CAIN HOSTS “MICHIGAN MATTERS” AT 11 A.M. SUNDAYS ON WWJ-TV (CBS DETROIT).

STEPHANIE McCLUNG/WWJ-TV-CBS

   Gov. Rick Snyder appears with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during a stop in Lansing to discuss education reforms.

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Snyder builds DPS a new model and hope

   
MACKINAC ISLAND — So, is DPS dead?

   Gov. Rick Snyder had an answer Thursday to the simple but daunting question posed in a Free Press story earlier this week.

   It was yes. And no.

   And despite the inherent tension in that reply, I think Snyder — who just appointed a second emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools — might be pushing the city toward its best possible hope for having sustainable, high-performing options in public education.

   Yes, DPS is dead in the sense that the current system is insolvent and unsustainable. The system is still hemorrhaging students and, as a result, millions of dollars. And no one could effect the kind of dramatic cuts to match falling revenues without destroying the district’s ability to deliver fundamental services to children .

   But no, Snyder also said, public education is not dead in Detroit. Far from it.

   What he hopes former GM executive Roy Roberts will do as EFM is redefine and, as a result, revitalize it outside the restrictive framework of the old-style school district.

   Encouraging innovation

   In Snyder’s ideal, all schools in Detroit would be created around sets of individual principles and ideas, by committed groups of educators, parents, community groups and whoever else wants to get involved. They’d all be “charter schools,” in the sense of being constituted around the models they chose.

   Some might be existing public schools. Some could be charters.

   They’d have remarkable freedom to implement their models, try new things, pursue innovation. But the key is that they’d be held accountable for student performance — either locally under a new school governance structure or by the state, if that’s where they were chartered.

   Snyder says the education reform plans that he announced last month will be tough on schools that operate under the state’s charter law, and if they don’t deliver, “they can lose their charters.”

   Focus on results

   This is what Snyder means when he talks about creating a “system of schools” to replace Detroit’s school system. He’s describing something that’s focused much more on results than on governance. It’s a system that would not look much like what the city has now.

   There are already some promising examples — the schools that were taken over by the United Way in 2008; the new public charters announced by DPS last week. But growing such models to serve all the city’s children is more than a difference of scale; it’s also a question of substance.

   There is still very little market incentive for anyone to take on responsibility for educating the city’s poorest and most isolated children.

   This plan also depends heavily on Snyder being successful in changing how the state evaluates, rewards and metes out consequences for schools. Michigan does an awful job of that right now.

   If he can work through the kinks, Snyder’s vision could offer real hope for public education in Detroit.

   And at this point, it’s the only hope I see on the horizon.

   • STEPHEN HENDERSON IS EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR FOR THE FREE PRESS. CONTACT HIM ATSHENDERSON600@FREEPRESS.COM  , OR AT 313-222-6659.

Snyder: DPS may need to split

Empower schools, he says

By CHRIS CHRISTOFF and KATHLEEN GRAY FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

   MACKINAC ISLAND — Detroit Public Schools might be better off as “a system of schools” rather than a single, large entity run by top-down management, Gov. Rick Snyder told the Free Press on Thursday.

   Snyder, who appointed retired GM executive Roy Roberts as the emergency manager for DPS, said the district needs a radical overhaul — but, he said, it’s up to Roberts to enact changes.

   “The nature of the district needs to change,” Snyder said. “Structurally, it’s a failing format.”

   Snyder spoke to Free Press reporters and editors during the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual policy conference. His comments were among several at the conference that focused on how to better educate Michigan students.

   Snyder said a new format would not necessarily convert Detroit schools to charter schools, but rather have them be managed like charter schools, with more autonomy. He said the school board could focus on measuring academic results instead of dictating curriculums and school-by-school management.

   “You need to empower the schools more, rather than having a command-and-control structure of the district,” he said. “How do you give the administrator in that school and the teachers a team? You make it more entrepreneurial and innovative.

   “It’s like they’re a business unit, and they’re there to help their kids grow. Give them the resources to succeed, and then, how do you hold them accountable?”

   Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, spoke at the conference and said public schools’ success rests solely with teachers, who should be fired if their students don’t go on to college.

   “If you get paid to educate a child and you cannot do it, then you should probably go into a different business,” he said.

   Harlem Children’s Zone takes a holistic approach to education, helping families in a 100-block area of Harlem so that children are prepared to succeed in school. More communities, like Detroit, need to adopt the model, Canada said.

   Canada said business owners should have a vested interest in helping produce better schools because eventually, they’re going to have to pick from the talent pool educated in public schools.

   In another forum Thursday, the Excellent Schools Detroit group talked about creating excellent schools and recruiting great employees. Their goal for 2020 is to graduate 90% of their students, with 90% of those students enrolling in college without remedial classes.

   The Michigan Future Schools Accelerator soon will open three high schools in Detroit: the Carson School of Science and Medicine, which is affiliated with the Detroit Medical Center; Detroit College Preparatory, and the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy.

   The schools, funded with $800,000 each in foundation and grant dollars, will operate with no more than 500 students per school. Teachers will be hired from an open pool, instead of from a seniority list, and each school must have a counselor and a college coach who can help students after they graduate.

   “And if the kids are off-track, it’s the educators who will have to change,” said Lou Glazer, president of the program.

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Snyder‘s education plan has innovative reforms to reward schools’ success

By CHRIS CHRISTOFF FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF

   Gov. Rick Snyder will propose Wednesday financial rewards to individual schools that show exceptional academic progress.

   The money could be divided among the teachers or used in other ways they choose, according to a source familiar with the plan.

   It’s among reforms in a special message on education Snyder will deliver at 10 a.m. at the United Way for Southeastern Michigan in Detroit.

   Snyder also wants to allow students to choose online classes they can complete at home or other sites, rather than comply with state rules that they be in a classroom at least 1,098 hours a year.

   “There are some kids who learn better reading and looking at words than they do listening to a lecture,” said Bill Rustem, Snyder’s director of strategy.

   Rustem said it would be up to school districts to set guidelines for online programs, which education experts say can work well for both advanced students and those who perform poorly in traditional classes.

   Snyder also will call for changes in teacher tenure laws and charter schools in his education message. He delivered a similar address on local government reforms in March.

Best way to track results is measuring, Snyder says

Educators need more incentives, training

By CHRIS CHRISTOFF FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF

   EAST LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder told several hundred educators Monday to get used to the idea of measuring students’ performance.

   He’ll talk a lot about that Wednesday, he said, when he delivers his special message on education in Detroit.

   “We have to put much more emphasis on proficiency, on growth, on measurements and results than we have had in the past,” Snyder told the Governor’s Education Summit, an annual gathering of mostly teachers and school officials. “It’s about really delivering results for these kids, to show the whole system needs to be geared to say each child gets a good year’s education each and every year.”

   He said teachers and administrators must be given more incentives and training to improve the schools.

   “The way to approach it is not to get down on people, it’s not to approach it with blame,” he said. “It’s not (to) be negative with one another. It’s about how we look to the future and be positive and build on that as an opportunity to succeed together.”

   That means more autonomy for individual schools and teachers, and a system to financially reward outstandingteachers who can mentor others, he said.

   State schools Superintendent Michael Flanagan called for a deregulation of schools, such as eliminating minimum numbers of hours or days students must attend each year. Instead, schools would set their own guidelines for studentsto meet state academic goals.

   “My goal is to take away as many regulations as we can but hold people accountable for academic growth,” Flanagan said.

   A person familiar with Snyder’s plan said the governor won’t call for eliminating the minimum hours requirement, but will ask to give districts options, such as online learning programs for some students.

   Snyder’s speech is much anticipated, as the Legislature wrestles with how much to cut from state aid to school districts. Snyder has called for $300 per pupil less than the current year for all districts, but the Republican-controlled House and Senate are considering slightly different cuts.

   Snyder has often spoken of moving to an education culture that depends more on measured outcomes than on debates over money.

   He also will talk about an education system that begins with prenatal care programs.

   “I hope he will set some big audacious academic goals for us to accomplish in Michigan like they have done in other Midwestern states like Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois,” said Carol Goss, president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, in a response to the Free Press. She has met with Snyder to discuss education ideas.

   She said she hopes Snyder will propose more public-private partnerships, more accountability, and giving students more career alternatives than going to college, which does not suit some.

   In his remarks Monday, Snyder pointed to the United Way’s early childhood programs as an example of how the state could join with private ventures.

   Snyder also has met twice with philanthropist Eli Broad, a Michigan native and head of the Broad Foundation , which has aggressively funded some education initiatives.

   “They talked about using their expertise in education to help supplement what we’re doing to get a handle on not only the Detroit school system, but other public school districts, and what kind of innovative practices are out there,” said Snyder’s chief of staff Dennis Muchmore.

   Democrats, who’ve sharply criticized Snyder for his proposed cuts to schools and universities, were wary about his Wednesday speech.

   “I’m ready to work with the governor if he’s serious about giving our children a quality education, but his actions are speaking louder than his words,” said Rep. Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, minority vice chair of the House Education Committee.

Skillman Foundation CEO Carol Goss

State Superintendent Michael Flanagan

File photo by PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press

   “The way to approach it is not to get down on people, it’s not to approach it with blame,” Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Wednesday of measuring student performance. He spoke at the Governor’s Education Summit in East Lansing.