How Detroit’s collapse hurt Detroit Public Schools – a lesson for Chicago

In the wake of the Detroit bankruptcy, the media have paid a lot of attention to the effects of Detroit’s massive population loss – increased corruption, ineffective public safety and an unsustainable pension system, to name a few. But among the hundreds of articles written about the city after it declared bankruptcy, no one has...

In the wake of the Detroit bankruptcy, the media have paid a lot of attention to the effects of Detroit’s massive population loss – increased corruption, ineffective public safety and an unsustainable pension system, to name a few. But among the hundreds of articles written about the city after it declared bankruptcy, no one has talked much about how Detroit’s collapse has affected its public schools.

Detroit used to have a decent education system. At its peak in 1967, Detroit Public Schools enrolled 299,962 students.

It now has a student population of 46,070.

A glimpse at statistics from the past couple of years show just how bad the situation has become:

• Since 2007, the black-white achievement gap in Detroit has grown in every subject but social studies
• In 2009, Detroit Public Schools students posted the worst score on record on the National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, test since it began being administered in 1979 – with fourth-graders scoring in the ninth percentile and eighth graders in 12th percentile
• In 2012, only 2.3 percent of Detroit Public Schools students were college-ready

This sad tale should serve as warning to Chicago politicians and Chicago Teachers Union members. The taxes that result from multibillion-dollar unpaid pension liabilities and persistent red ink will cause residents and businesses to leave the city. This will have a substantial and negative effect on the public education system.

In fact, Chicago is already far down this path:

• Only 7.9 percent of its students are college-ready
• The district has never met federal benchmarks for student success
• Only 6 percent of its incoming freshman end up earning a four-year college degree by the age of 25 – 3 percent for African Americans and Hispanics

Eventually, the low quality of education will be used by Chicago residents as a reason to move. Many African Americans in the city are leaving for precisely this reason – 181,000 left between 2000 and 2010.

Chicago needs to deal with its growing education problems. Letting them persist will only lead to more people leaving the city, and consequently, to an even more poorly performing education system.

The city’s families deserve more than that.