How Can Detroit Improve Charter Schools And Give Better Education Choices For Students?

Most often than not, quality wins over quantity. What good is a number of available options if not any provides the purpose it must serve. In Detroit, education remains to be a primary problem when there are more than enough schools to accommodate students but only a few give quality teaching that can make students ready for college and life ahead.

As per National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, 34 schools out of the U.S. News and World Report's Top 100 high schools list are charter public schools. The list consists of the best high schools in the U.S. that showed remarkable academic performance and graduation rate among 20,000 schools in the country.

The fact does not hold true for charter schools in Detroit who are performing badly as per New York Times. Its charter schools are showing poor performance results from students who schools encouraged to enroll by means of a raffle, a gift card, or a freebie of any kind (via New York Times).

Aside from low quality charter schools, Parent Herald also reported that Detroit Public Schools are bankrupt from mismanagement and corruption. At the time of the report, Governor Snyder was set to approve two bills passed by the House and the Senate that would build a new school district in Detroit to rise above bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, education in Detroit remains to be problematic. New York Times digs in the history of charter schools in Detroit and how through the years, they have opened one after another without any regard for the quality of education they give to their students.

For instance, in downtown Detroit, there are 11 high schools for only 1,894 high school students. Approximately, Detroit has around 30,000 seats available more than it needs in charter and public high schools.

New York Times says that 23 years ago, Michigan opened charter schools to give more choices for students and to provide competition for public schools which would hopefully help improve the overall quality of education. Instead of positive results, growth of charter schools were not monitored and has boomed to be filled in with some of U.S.' poorest students. Ony 10 percent of high school seniors from Detroit are ready for college on reading exams.

As per DPS, Detroit Public Schools is a charter school authorizer that should make sure schools achieve their academic goals, are financially stable and follow state and federal requirements. Unfortunately, most charter schools in Detroit are ran by profit-based operators and give some of the lowest quality education in the U.S. According to New York Times, in 2015, the number of charter schools in Detroit comprise the five percent of terrible public schools in the state.

It is now usual in Detroit to move children from one school to another, with an average of five to seven schools per child. There are many reasons such as proximity of school from home, parent-teacher conflict and lots of campus fights (via New York Times).

New York Times reports that a Detroit Education Commission was proposed by Mayor Mike Duggan to establish standards that would shut down failing schools. Four Detroit Republican business executives approve, saying that the free market is inadequate to improve schools.

How do you think can Detroit improve its existing charter schools? Comment below your thoughts and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.