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James Quaglia Dr. Parvinder Mehta ENG 1020 13 December 2010

D- Detroit
In the midst of economic turmoil, fear of terrorism, and ever increasing potential for another world war, the United States faces an even greater, far more existent problem. Youth education in major cities is deplorable. Unlike terrorism and the threat of war, this problem is not only already present, but has been plaguing the youth of urban dwellers for decades. Unfortunately deemed the worst city at almost everything, Detroit finds itself atop yet another negative list. Perpetuated by manipulated academic standards, poverty, racial segregation, and ineffective government, the school systems in Detroit have failed. Jeffery Mirel states: Students in Detroit high schools performed at a level that the chair of the federal court monitoring commission called "deplorable." Throughout the 1980s, the high school dropout rate ranged from 41 to at times 57 percent. Yet, even graduating seniors lacked the basic reading and math skills necessary to succeed in the modern workplace, a situation attested to by the abysmal scores of Detroit students on the American College Test (ACT). In 1987, the average ACT score in Detroit was about 14, more than four points below the national average. (242) The failure of Detroits schools can be attributed to many factors, some even dating back to the Great Depression. Action has been taken by organizations in Detroit and all across the country

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to remedy urban Americas lack of proper education. Groups have been formed to address the illiteracy rate, tutor struggling students, and provide financial assistance to families and schools in need. The Skillman Foundation is a private charity that has, since 1960, been making sizable donations to the families and schools in the city of Detroit in order to advance the citys youth education (About Us). The Skillman Foundation has been active for 50 years, yet education conditions have only further deteriorated; therefore, it is not a viable solution to the lack of quality urban education. To begin searching for feasible answers for the ineptitude of Detroits school system, one must first identify the roots and causes of the existence of the ineptitude itself. The current state of Detroits apathetic educational standards can be initially attributed to the massive increase in population occurring simultaneously with World War II. Thousands of migrants from the South, including large numbers of African Americans, crowded into makeshift housing and looked for high-paying jobs in the defense industries (Angus and Mirel 181). These predominantly African American migrants became part of Detroits school system, which was not designed for or able to cope with such massive population increase. Detroit, as well as many cities around the country, witnessed a startling expansion of high school enrollments. Many of these new students were drawn from lower-working-class homes and migrant families from the South (Angus and Mirel 181). Detroit schools were overcrowded and understaffed. In order to cope with the enrollment increase, new and practical courses with lower expectations were created. This was thought to be a perfect solution, not only would classroom conditions improve, but students could learn applicable skills for the Wartime Era. David Angus describes the curriculum of Detroit students and academic attitude of the city:

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Students practiced math skills by computing the sale of war bonds, heard history lessons related to current events, improved their writing skills by writing letters to GIs, and in woodshop manufactured crutches and canes for injured soldiers. Fundamental to this vision was the notion of the custodial function of the school-that keeping students in school as long as possible is itself a worthy goal regardless of whether the actual school experience is rich enough or effective enough to prepare them for the future. (206) The war ended, but the academic attitudes and values of knowledge did not return to their prior levels. Declining academic standards had become a chronic problem since the end of World War II as increasing numbers of white working class and black high school students in Detroit were routinely and disproportionately placed in the general track and fed a steady diet of watered-down academic and personal development courses (Mirel 243). Math and science were no longer the focal point of elementary and high school studies because students were encouraged to educate themselves generically and practically. Intellectual knowledge was replaced with skills deemed useful for the time and place. This was especially true for African Americans in Detroit. While African American students represented just under 12 percent of all high school students in the 1946-47 school year, African Americans made up 18 percent of those following the general education track, an overrepresentation of 50 percent (Angus and Mirel 186). The African American youth of Detroit were being educated, but their education was in vain, for the skills they learned were not applicable in the workplace. Over the next forty years, Detroit lost of 47 percent of its population. Due to the unrelenting exodus of whites after the 1950s, the city was left drastically homogenized and even more drastically uneducated. The metropolitan area was severely racially segregated and tensions between the white suburbs and minority city cores grew. By 1990 over three-quarters of

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Detroit's population was African American, most of whom lived in racially isolated neighborhoods. According to sociologists Reynolds Farley and William Frey, in 1990 Detroit ranked as the most segregated of the cities in the United States with populations of a million or more (Mirel 240). Racial tensions of the time period further damaged the education system in the city. The city was now inhabited and governed by African Americans, but due to white flight and the enormous reduction of the tax base, the Detroit Public School system relied heavily on outside, white controlled finances. Whites played a dominant role in state government. The power of all these institutions especially in the area of school finance was considerable. During the 1980s, for example, the state government provided between 50 to 60 percent of the total budget of the Detroit Public Schools (Mirel 245). The relationship of whites and blacks in Detroit can be described with the term cumulative causation. Dr. George Galster describes cumulative causation in Urban Opportunity Structure: Our society has created a warped opportunity structure whose primary feature is raceclass segregation. This structure induces many low income minority house houses in city cores to make choices that are rational within their constrained set of options, but perpetuate socioeconomic inequities among races and classes. These choices legitimate prejudices held by dominant groups against low income minorities and motivate and justify the dominant group to perform legal and illegal acts and structures to reinforce segregation (12). Due to cumulative causation, whites, in power of the state government and the financing of Detroit Public Schools, neglected the open wounds of the education system and the deteriorating state of the city, and further allowed Detroit schools to flounder.

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The effects of Detroits incredibly poor system of education are seen today at Wayne State University. Located in the heart of one of the nation's most racially segregated areas, Wayne State itself has the biggest white-black gap in graduation rates among public universities with significant numbers of students of both races. Less than 1 in 10 of Wayne State's black students graduated within six years, compared with more than 4 in 10 of its white students (Kiley). It has become part of the inner city culture, due to cumulative causation, acceptable to fail and to have an apathetic view of academics. The sole purpose of high school education should be preparing students for university study. Detroit high schools are failing so miserably that Wayne State administrators and faculty members say that if they want the students they admit to succeed, they have to design curricula and provide support services that correct deficiencies in students' high-school instruction (Kiley). A former Wayne State Philosophy professor, Leonard Kasle argues that Our children know the community does not care enough about their education to provide the seats and the staff necessary for a full day's educational program. They cannot be taught another attitude until the community itself revalues its standards. The Skillman Foundation devotes its resources to the community, in order to aid the crippled city of Detroit and its dreadful public school system. The Skillman Foundation was found in December of 1960 by Rose Skillman. Rose had a particular love of children, especially those who seemed vulnerable, or in danger. Needless to say, the children of Detroit in the 1960s definitely qualified as vulnerable. Race riots, violent strikes, and a terrible system of education surrounded them. After her husband Robert Skillman [vice president of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M)] died, Rose devoted the familys incredible amount of wealth to aiding and financing children and schools of Detroit. The Skillman Foundation involves two programs aimed at benefiting the education of Detroits children. The Good Schools program is executed by financially assisting the existing primary

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and secondary schools of Detroit in order to assist its students graduate, attend college, and live prosperous lives. The second program dedicated to enhancing Detroit education is the Good Neighborhoods program. It is designed to encourage the creation of safe, healthy, and vibrant neighborhoods where children with the support of caring adults, programs, and experiences can develop fully. The Skillman Foundation has donated an average of 30 million dollars a year to the education of Detroits children over the past decade (About Us). Unfortunately, success is not measured in amount of dollars donated and Detroits youth has not seen any statistically significant increases in quality of education, evident in the graduation rate of African Americans attending Wayne State University. Even more distressing is the results of the Detroit children on standardized tests. Most Detroit Public Schools fourth- and eighth-graders were unable to score at a basic math level on a national test this year marking the lowest performance in the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Erb and Dawsey). There has been little progress in Detroit. The Skillman Foundation still continues to donate millions of dollars to Detroit in hope of one day enhancing the citys public schooling; however that day is nowhere near. The Skillman Foundation alone cannot fix the Detroit Public Schools While Detroit is an extreme example of the injustices of poor education, it is not alone. Almost all major cities in the United States have faced serious troubles stemming from their respective public education system. Newark, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Milwaukee have also been battling poor youth education (Mirel 238). Unlike Detroit and The Skillman Foundation, Chicago has not attempted to solve their crisis by massive financial donations, but by fundamental changes in the structure of the system itself. David Angus describes the systematic change:

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Chicago provides a noteworthy example of these disparate and contradictory developments. In 1988, Chicago became the center of the most dramatic form of school decentralization ever undertaken in a major city, a process that included the creation of over 500 local school councils and a drastic reduction in the size and authority of the system's central bureaucracy. (238) This method of addressing injustices in public school systems in Chicago has yielded much greater results than Detroit. It seems as though the common theme in most major cities and their intrinsic problems stems from the gigantic bureaucracy that every big city intrinsically possesses. Chicago has decentralized their system of education, minimizing the effect of the citys stagnant and sluggish bureaucracy on education. It has instituted school reform about parent-based democracy, cultural diversity, and child centered development (Betancur and Gills 97). On the other hand, Newark has also seen some promising improvements in graduation and literacy rates by instituting complete state control of the education system (Mirel 238). Detroit could implement either of these methods in hope of enhancing its youths education. Either one addresses the problems of city bureaucracy perpetuated by cumulative causation, something The Skillman Foundations donations cannot. Dumping money into Detroits Public School system can be compared to attempt to cure cancer with Tylenol. The Skillman Foundation and its contributions to Detroit have definitely supplemented the ever-decreasing tax base, but clearly do not provide the proper amount or method of assistance required to fix Detroit schools. In 2009, enrolled in various Detroit grade schools took the National Assessment of Educational Progress test. Taken by about 1,900 fourth- and eighth-graders, Detroits fourth-graders scored 200 against the national average 239 on a scale of 500. Detroits eighth-graders lagged further behind, scoring 238 compared to the

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average of 282 (Erb and Dawsey). At the time of this test, The Skillman Foundation had donated around 270 million dollars (figure generated using an average of 30 million dollars a year since 2000). These results are truly shocking. Not only has 270 million dollars been spent for the children of Detroit to perform the worst in the history of the test, but the older students, who had been beneficiaries of an extra 4 years immersion in The Skillman Foundations generous donations actually performed proportionally worse than the younger students. While The Skillman Foundations 30 million dollar per year donation seemingly has no drawbacks, it could just be responsible for perpetuating more apathy in Detroit. Only a complete overhaul of the school system and how students are taught should be permitted at this point because the results signal a complete failure and breakdown of the grownups that have run this school system, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools. The city of Detroit stands at the base of a mountain and to solve its educational crisis, it must essentially climb that mountain. The Skillman Foundation must be supplemented. Children are hope. Detroit is allowing its past to destroy its future by crippling its own youth. Whether Detroit decides to destroy the bureaucracy by decentralization of local government control or implementing complete state control, something must be done to stop cumulative causation. As long as Detroit remains racially segregated and cumulative causation unfortunately occurs, those who make Detroits educational decisions must be out of Detroit. Cumulative causation prevents the city from liberating themselves from its educational crisis caused so long ago. The decisions availed to the inner city minorities who control the city only further self destruction and perpetuate racial segregation. Education reform in Detroit must be made paramount in the short term and long term goals of Detroit. The Skillman Foundation cannot do this alone.

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Works Cited "About Us." The Skillman Foundation. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://www.skillman.org/about-us/>. Angus, David L., and Jeffery E. Mirel. "Equality, Curriculum, and the Decline of the Academic Ideal: Detroit, 1930-68." History of Education Quarterly 33.2 (1993): 178-207. Print. Betancur, John J., and Douglas Gills. "Community Development in Chicago: From Harold Washington to Richard M. Daley." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 594.1 (2004): 184-86. Print. Erb, Robin, and Chastity Dawsey. "Detroit Students' Scores a Record Low on National Test Read More: Detroit Students' Scores a Record Low on National Test." Detroit Students' Scores a Record Low on National Test Read More: Detroit Students' Scores a Record Low on National Test. Detroit Freep Press, 8 Dec. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://www.freep.com/article/20091208/NEWS01/91208020/1319/DPS-students-national-testscores-at-record-low>. Galster, George C. "Urban Opportunity Structure and Racial/Ethinic Polarization." 29 Aug. 2006. Kiley, Kevin. "Wayne State U.'s Stark Graduation Gaps Reflect Detroit's Struggles Government - The Chronicle of Higher Education." The Chronicle of Higher Education. Web. 01 Dec. 2010. <http://chronicle.com/article/Wayne-State-Us-Stark/124971/>. Mirel, Jeffery E. "After the Fall: Continuity and Change in Detroit, 1981-1995." History of Education Quarterly 38 (1998): 237-67. Print.