“(My daughter) is bused to school. (It’s a) hardship because she must leave at 6:30am to make
a bus at 6:40 am to arrive at school at 8:00 am. She is leaving in the dark. ….I am always
worried about her safety. If the bus doesn’t show up, or gets there late, I must leave work. ”63
“When children are late, of no fault of their own, they are denied breakfast. We leave at
6:30am or earlier depending on weather. Very bad weather makes travel difficult.” 73
“Cars and buses pull up to the same designated area, for drop off and pick up.” 95
The distance children travel is a hardship. My kids go to Mackenzie (Elementary) and I live
near Greenfield. My students catch the bus. With students coming from so far, it is too much
chaos.” 128
Positive Community Activities Dismantled by Governor Snyder
With the stress of long and often dangerous travel, students need healthy outlets. Many of the male
complainants spoke of the Governor’s destruction of sports programs which were the bedrock of community
activities. Complaint states:
“The school is the hub of the neighborhood. The basketball and football games are
gone. All you have is an overgrown lot full of high grass and weeds.” F
Giving Minority Public Schools the Same Respect to Autonomy as the EAA and Charters
Whether the schools needed to be closed or not is curious considering the map of Charters that have opened near or
inside the schools that have been closed. Detroit is the second largest community for Charter schools. One thing, the
Charter Schools have appointed Boards, which have not traditionally:
- held public meetings,
- published their meeting minutes,
- followed financial disclosure laws,
- allowed parent input, or
- even been proven to provide better educational outcomes than the closed schools.
In fact, the lack of transparency that has existed in the Charter model in Detroit is so similar to the way that Governor
Snyder is running the Detroit Public Schools through Emergency Management; you might think the Governor was trying
to turn DPS into a Charter. Well, except that the Charters Schools are not allowing their property to be stripped and
infrastructure to be sold off by nefarious types during the night. That might be because the Charter Schools value the
property they inhabit and wish to increase the number of customers who provide them with federal dollars.
The Governor has hired Paul Pastorek, the former New Orleans school chief who created two charters for every one new
district school after hurricane Katrina. Serving as a consultant for Michigan, Pastorek meets with Mackinac Policy Center,
founder, Richard McClellan. A November 21, 2014 Detroit News article reads:
115