It's hard not to be shaken by the financial news emanating from Wall Street these days. I can't help but wish I'd studied more economics in college (or that I'd sold our house and started renting a few years ago). But I also can't help but wish that dysfunctional urban school systems could experience some of the "market discipline" that Lehman Brothers is enjoying right now.
Take Detroit Public Schools, perhaps America's worst school system. While the ship is sinking, school board members and the superintendent are squabbling over "rudeness." Is there any reason to believe that the current governance arrangement, political dynamic, and leadership are conducive to the systemic transformation needed to save Motown's children from a life of despair?
What's needed is a fresh start, a do-over, a man-made hurricane that can provide the clean slate for Detroit (and other cities with failed systems) that Katrina provided New Orleans. Simply put, Detroit Public Schools should be declared bankrupt. The state should take it into receivership, declare all of its contracts (including collective bargaining agreements) void. It should slice through any red tape that would keep Detroit from creating a world-class system, including Michigan's inane cap on new charter schools and its burdensome teacher certification requirements. A Paul Vallas-type (if not Paul Vallas himself) should be recruited to build, from the bottom-up, a strong curriculum, a culture of excellence, back-office and human resource routines that work--all the elements of a functioning organization.
All of this will take a change in state law--and a sense of urgency from Governor Granholm and legislative leaders that Michigan won't allow Detroit to die at the hands of the Detroit Public Schools. Yesterday, Lehman Brothers got sacrificed in order to save the Wall Street system. Today, DPS and other failed school systems should be sacrificed in order to save their cities, their children, and their futures. Political leaders: what are you waiting for?
