Posted 19 minutes ago
Updated 18 minutes ago
By DAVID EGGERT and COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. \u2014 Michigan announced Friday that it plans to close up to 38 underperforming schools in Detroit and other urban communities, potentially affecting 18,000 students and marking the first time that the state could close traditional public schools explicitly for academic reasons.
Despite the announcement, some schools likely will remain open. State officials next will determine whether a closure would be an \u00ab\u00a0unreasonable hardship\u00a0\u00bb for children with no better schools to attend. Lawsuits challenging any closures also are likely.
The announcement came in conjunction with the release of Michigan’s school rankings, which are based on standardized test results, students’ improvement over time and the gap between the best and worst pupils. Michigan law says the state can close schools that have been in the bottom 5 percent for at least three consecutive years if other forms of state intervention have not worked.
State-ordered closings appear to be rare nationally. Texas has closed entire school districts for failing to meet attendance and other standards. Other cities such as Detroit and Chicago have closed several schools at a time to address falling enrollment, sparking protests for safety and other reasons.
Fewer than half of states have school accountability systems that allow for closures and the option \u00ab\u00a0has been used infrequently by states,\u00a0\u00bb said Jennifer Thomsen with the Education Commission of the States. \u00ab\u00a0It seems to happen more at the individual district level. \u00a0\u00bb
Twenty-four of the schools targeted for closure are in Detroit, a predominantly black city with the worst academically performing school district of its size in the U. S. The rest are in cities such as Kalamazoo and Saginaw.
The plan drew sharp criticism from teachers’ groups.
\u00ab\u00a0Simply closing schools and upending the lives of students won’t fix any problems if the root causes are adequately addressed,\u00a0\u00bb said Steven Cook, president of the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.
The move follows attempts by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to use state law to exert near-total state financial control of some cities, resulting in successfully guiding Detroit through bankruptcy but also the man-made Flint water disaster.
In 2015, Snyder took over the office charged with turning around the lowest-performing schools by transferring its functions to a department that reports to him instead of the elected state Board of Education. He cited unsatisfactory progress and said no schools in the bottom 5 percent had been placed in a state turnaround district as authorized under a 2009 law.
The law lets the state impose one of four intervention models, including closure, if a school’s \u00ab\u00a0redesign\u00a0\u00bb plan is not working. Last week, a GOP state senator introduced legislation to repeal the intervention law, calling it defective and in need of a fix now that state powers are being used more aggressively.
In deciding which schools will actually close, state officials in the coming weeks will look at whether there are nearby schools that rank higher academically and could handle additional enrollment.
\u00ab\u00a0Our goal is to make sure that every kid in the state of Michigan has access to a quality education so they have the skills necessary for a high-wage job, a career or college. That’s the only way really to end multi-generational poverty for a large majority of the children in the schools that we’re serving,\u00a0\u00bb said Natasha Baker, the state’s school reform officer.
The Education Achievement Authority, the state-run entity that was intended as a turnaround district for Detroit’s lowest-performing schools when Snyder created it in 2011, said it was disappointed to see eight of its 14 schools on the list for possible closure. The other 16 Detroit schools on the list are in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.
\u00ab\u00a0Today’s public announcement comes without input from districts, educators or community. This should make us all question the validity of this action,\u00a0\u00bb said Education Achievement Authority Chancellor Veronica Conforme.
She and Chris Wigent, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators, said the state used flawed data. State assessments have changed every year since the 2014-15 academic year, \u00ab\u00a0so there is no consistent data upon which to base these closings,\u00a0\u00bb Wigent said.
Until Friday, the state had only once before ordered school closings for academic reasons. Those closures in 2010 and 2011 involved two charter schools, which are independent public schools that are especially prevalent in Detroit. Other charters have been closed by universities and others who run them.
The state’s charter school group, the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, backed Friday’s announcement.
\u00ab\u00a0Nobody likes to see a school close, but we support the state taking this responsibility seriously,\u00a0\u00bb said Dan Quisenberry, president of the group. \u00ab\u00a0Our kids deserve better. \u00a0\u00bb
___
Williams reported from Detroit. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Austin, Texas, and Don Babwin in Chicago contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\n

\nSimilarity rank: 1.1\n<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 0.8<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n