Detroit parents want DPS teachers, officials jailed

[frigidmagi]

Yahoo

Impassioned parents demanded jail time for educators and district officials Saturday following the release of test scores that showed fourth- and eighth-graders had the worst math scores in the nation.

City students took the National Assessment of Educational Progress test this year, and 69 percent of fourth-graders scored below the basic level in math and 77 percent of eighth-graders scored below basic.

The Detroit scores on the progress test were the lowest in its 40-year history. The sample of students included 900 of Detroit's 6,000 fourth-graders and 1,000 of the district's 6,000 eighth-graders.

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Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, called for jailing and civil lawsuits against anyone in the city's educational system that is not doing his or her share to help properly educate children.

"Somebody needs to go to jail," she said in a tearful address to 500 parents gathered Saturday for the organization's annual breakfast forum. "Somebody needs to pay for this. Somebody needs to go to jail, and it shouldn't be the kids."

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb told the crowd the test scores weren't the result of children who were incompetent or parents who didn't care. He blamed the scores on the district not doing its job.

"This is an abysmal failure," Bobb said. "It is not the fault of our kids individually, and it is not the fault of our kids collectively. It is not the kids' fault. It is the adults' fault. It is a failure of leadership."

The scores were so low that DPS parent Tonya Allen said she thinks students could have stayed home and done just as badly on the tests.

"No other city in the history of this test has done this bad," said Allen, a founding member of the 7-year-old network. "They could have took this test in French and done just as bad."

Celia Huerta, also a DPS parent, said the scores show how much work is needed in the schools.

"I am hoping and praying there will be investments in the schools, but I am not seeing it," she said. "Our kids are smart, the problem is the way they are being taught."

Bobb said he is going to announce a new reading initiative Monday in which he will be calling for 100,000 volunteer hours to help children with reading. Reading was one of the reasons cited for the low math scores.

Attendees gave Bobb a rousing reception and loudly applauded him during his remarks. They had harsh words, though, for Mayor Dave Bing, who was not in attendance.

"Where is the mayor?" Buckman asked. "Don't release a statement. Do something. Show up."

But according to the mayor's office, Bing did not receive an invitation to the event. Mayoral spokesman Edward Cardenas said Bing not being there shouldn't be construed as the mayor not having an interest or not wanting to be involved.

Buckman also had harsh words for a group of teachers who are in favor of striking instead of approving a new contract that forces them to give up $500 per month or $250 per paycheck as an investment. The money will be given to the district to help plug a $219 million deficit, and it will be returned when they retire.

"If they strike, I hope we start a homeschool movement," she said in a fiery rebuke. "If you want to walk out on us now, when we have all of our kids failing...you can't do it."

A group of teachers was to prepare Saturday evening to get out the word to vote against the proposed contract and seek to remove Detroit Federation of Teachers president Keith Johnson. The Vote No and Prepare to Strike Committee, made up of a limited number of teacher activists, is prepared to take action against the district, according to a release.

But Bobb said teachers should understand that Johnson negotiated a better financial deal for members than Johnson is being credited for.

"I proposed a 10 percent pay cut," Bobb said. "Mr. Johnson and his team are actually saving the teachers financially from what I was proposing. The negotiations are over. Our final and best offer is on the table."

Teachers begin voting on a three-year contract next week.

I feel the need to response to parts of this article.

Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, called for jailing and civil lawsuits against anyone in the city's educational system that is not doing his or her share to help properly educate children.

"Somebody needs to go to jail," she said in a tearful address to 500 parents gathered Saturday for the organization's annual breakfast forum. "Somebody needs to pay for this. Somebody needs to go to jail, and it shouldn't be the kids."

Look in the bloody mirror lady. Look the facts are pretty simple, the more involved the parents are in a kid's education, the better the kid does. If your kid is failing, you are part of the problem. Sure he could be having shitty teachers, but in the end you have way more power to influence and shape your child then a teacher does.

Buckman also had harsh words for a group of teachers who are in favor of striking instead of approving a new contract that forces them to give up $500 per month or $250 per paycheck as an investment. The money will be given to the district to help plug a $219 million deficit, and it will be returned when they retire.

"If they strike, I hope we start a homeschool movement," she said in a fiery rebuke. "If you want to walk out on us now, when we have all of our kids failing...you can't do it."

So basically they intend to refuse you to allow you to outright steal a chunk of their cash (never mind they're already massively underpaid) and you're upset at their gall!?!

No wonder this city is a shitpool.

[The Cleric]

I thought I had misread that last quote when I skimmed the article. I guess not :/

[Comrade Tortoise]

It is fucking detroit. It is not the damn teachers fault. A 12 year old in that city has a better than even chance of being in the morgue by age 20. They have an urban youth culture that devalues education and values taking stupid risks in order to gain wealth and thus fitness. You want kids to do well? Keep them off the fucking street and clean up your motherfucking cesspool.

[Derek Thunder]

Further support for my argument that Detroit should be abandoned, the population dispersed, and the land returned to a pre-settlement state. Dense old-growth forests watched over by the crumbling ruins of the GM headquarters - a modern Acropolis standing as a monument to the passion and hubris of mankind.

[B4UTRUST]

Frigid, you're absolutely correct in saying that a lot of the problem is the parents, not the teachers. But see, for the same reason you go to stores and find the little fucktrophies running around wildly and the parents not caring is the same reason they're failing here. Parents don't give a fuck until the person they've pawned their spawn onto fails them. It's okay if the parent is a fuckup and doesn't give a shit about the kid, but if the school does it? Oh hell no. It's on. Sadly, that's pretty much anywhere, but this article really shows it.

Teachers are underpaid to begin with. Their job is a lot of unpaid work as well, grading papers, lesson planning, etc that isn't on the clock. They have to buy a lot of their own teaching materials and resources because either the school system doesn't have money to fund it or parents won't provide for their own kids and the kid needs paper and pencils from somewhere. Taking away that much of their pay is a slap in the face to educators. You don't expect brilliance from someone with a McJob, so why should you expect someone making barely more than that to give a shit either? A lot of teachers get into this because they want to, because they have a passion to educate and teach and help. Then they get worn down by a shitty system that fucks them over and then does shit like this. Not to mention the kids who don't want to be there, don't give a shit and don't want to learn and the parents who are on their asses because little Johnny Fuckwit can't spell simple words or add two digit numbers.

The cut in pay isn't the answer to help fill a deficit. It's just adding to the problem. It's cutting a police officer's pay so they can fill the department budget or cutting the ambulance driver's pay so they can put gas in it. you're not going to get people who do their best and really care about their job when you keep messing with their pay. That's the quickest way to make people stop caring. Of course if people voted them higher budget allowances to actually fund this stuff and make the pay decent for the job it would be different. But that won't happen because it would raise taxes and nobody wants to hear that. Of course those same people bitch when their house is burning and the fire dept doesn't have the budget to maintain their equipment to put it out. Or when they're being robbed but theres no cops to respond because the budget forced cutbacks and layoffs.

I hope the teachers do strike. The kids will suffer, but hell, maybe that'll teach them to appreciate what they had. Probably not. And the parents may learn to realize that the job aint as easy as it looks and that it's not the teacher's fault their demon child is a complete fucking idiot. Again, probably not. The end result will be the teachers striking, the children either being home schooled which forces at parent out of work to teach the child and cuts their household income or the kids don't learn and sit at home while the teachers strike. And then they have to make it up during the summer when they should have it off. But then that'll be blamed on the teachers too...