AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: Fix K-12 Education First...

The Supreme Court upheld Michigan’s law that bans affirmative action based on race in college admissions but judging by all the articles in this Sunday’s paper, the issue is not going away.

Among all the points of argument, pro & con, I think everyone agrees that a level playing field must be achieved in K-12 education so that students applying for college admission would all have had a K-12 education of equal quality.

Here in Michigan, this is not something that can easily be achieved even though most of the pundits feel throwing more money at the problem will solve the problem….NOT!

Detroit students get the same amount of state money as do students in other parts of the state. The difference is in the local school systems that govern each school district.

The Detroit Public School system, like the city, has been broken for many years. The school board has been corrupt and incompetent for so long that the governor appointed special school czars with dictatorial powers to clean up the mess.

Firing and prosecuting teachers and principals that stole from the system is one thing; changing the culture built up over all these years is a different matter.

Attracting good quality teachers to Detroit schools is another problem. Many schools and classrooms are not safe and many students are woefully unprepared for school on a daily basis due to home conditions such as the lack of two parent households or parents that do not have the time or the inclination or the talent to help students with their homework.

Charter schools are all the rage in Detroit. These charter schools have the pick of the best students and leave the public schools all their rejects. I guess one can call this an improvement over the past since at least some students are getting a quality K-12 education.

I find it infuriating that all the talking heads are decrying the lack of affirmative action in getting black kids into U-M (even though they can get into other top notch schools) instead of getting their K-12 education on par with white K-12 education.

We moved out of Detroit so our kids could get the best education they could and they did. The problem is that after all these years; people still have to move out of Detroit so their kids can get a decent education…pitiful.