Anger over Detroit plan to close 51 schools

Of the 51 schools proposed for closure, 38 are elementary or kindergarten to eighth-grade schools, 6 are middle schools, and 7 are comprehensive or alternative high schools. The plan calls for 47 school to close in the summer of 2007 and the remaining 4 in the summer of 2008. The Detroit school superintendent, William F. Coleman III, acknowledged, “The level of closures proposed in this plan is unprecedented in the United States and will no doubt exact a heavy toll on all of us.”

School board officials claim that the “reconsolidation” plan will result in a savings of $21 million annually out of a $1.5 billion budget, but they also stated that an initial $22 million cost to close the schools would wipe out any savings for 2007.

The cost reductions will do little to offset the financial crisis facing the district, which has faced perpetual deficits due to reduced revenues from the auto industry. The Detroit-based auto giants have been granted tax cuts and other subsidies over the last three decades, even as they slashed hundreds of thousands of area jobs. School officials and the media have said little if anything, for example, about the $210 million loan the district must repay to the state of Michigan for covering previous budget deficits. The state itself is facing a $3 billion deficit chiefly due to a decrease in business revenue.

More
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/detr-f08.shtml