This week, on Monday, June 20, Detroit Public Schools, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and its State Mandated Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts announced the formation of an independent school district, the Education Achievment System.  Under a somewhat novel, and at the outset controversial proposal, the new system would start with the worst-performing DPS schools and then absorb another 5% of underperforming state public and charter schools, numbering about 200.  The new EAS will be governed by an Educational Achievement Authority that will be established through an agreement between Eastern Michigan University and DPS and will be an independent, free-standing state entity.

The EAS schools will offer a longer school day, as well as improved access to the arts, music and physical education.

The plan would go into effect in 2012-13. Once transferred, schools would operate longer school days. And principals would have wider authority over budgets and hiring, making this transition one favoring local governance and more control by principals and teachers to improve student performance.  However, is this the best way to reform a system that Education Secretary Arne Duncan said was near or at the "bottom of the barrel" in comparison to other big-city school districts?  And can it make a discernible difference when it comes to increasing graduation rates, improving grade-level reading in students in grades 3, 5 and 8?  Its' success remains to be seen in a system that until recently ran multimillion dollar deficits and is currently at the center of a corruption and fraud case invloving vendors and DPS employees accused of accepting kickbacks in return for favorable contract awards.

It is discouraging as a graduate of Detroit Public Schools to see Detroit schools fall so quickly and so precipitously.  Schools such as Cass Technical High School, Renaissance, Whitney Young Middle School and others have been widely supplanted by failing schools failing their kids, like Osborn, Southeastern, Pershing, Southwestern and even Dr. Martin Luther King High, once renowned for its decent combination of excellent academic achievement and athletics dominance. 

Is this proposal a good idea for Detroit?  Do you think it will be duplicated around the country? Or can it be the panacea that the school system so badly needs, to save an entire generation of young people, arming them with the tools they will need to compete on a global level?

Tell me what you think...