Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News
Backers hope to draw top national operators to create 25000 seats in the next decade
Detroit -- Two of the most influential charter school backers in the city are teaming up to bring 25000 new charter school seats to Detroit within a decade.
Founders of University Preparatory Academy and Henry Ford Academy have formed a nonprofit to recruit some of the countrys best urban charter operators to Detroit nearly doubling the number of charter seats in the city.
The idea is to go from a city that is widely considered the most dysfunctional urban area in the country in terms of educational opportunities and to turn it into a test bed of dozens of different kinds of high-performing schools said Steve Hamp founder of Henry Ford Academy.
The effort could be a blow to Detroit Public Schools which has lost almost half its students since 2000 -- many of them to charters. Each student who leaves takes along about $7500 in state funding.
The additional charters could provide a financial opportunity for the district however because the operators are interested in operating in closed city school buildings.
Robert Bobb the districts state-appointed emergency financial manager said hes willing to sell shuttered district schools to charters as long as the price is fair and the buildings are maintained.
The district Bobb said will continue to improve with hard work and determination by staff and students.
(The district) should not spend one second of its energy worrying about the charter school movement he said.
Keith Johnson president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers strongly disagrees with the notion that charter schools are the answer when nothing could be further from the truth.
He and other vocal DPS critics believe charters are capitalizing on some of the dysfunctions of Detroit Public Schools to promote their own agenda Johnson said. They are using our children in DPS like they are commodities.
First school planned
Doug Ross founder of the U Prep schools in Detroit and Hamp have secured YES Prep a Houston charter that boasts a 100 percent college attendance rate to open a school for sixth- to 12th-graders by next fall. The school would likely be housed in an unidentified former Detroit Public Schools building on the citys northwest side.
YES Prep is believed to be the first high-performing national charter model to come to the city. And if Ross and Hamp have their way its just one of several such announcements coming over the next six months.
University Prep and Henry Ford Academy are committing themselves to 6000-8000 of the 25000 charter school slots they seek to add but they will need new charters to bring in the new national charter operators Ross said.
The number of charters authorized by universities is capped but there are opportunities for academies by YES and KIPP a nationally regarded college prep charter operator and others to get their own charters.
Universities sometimes close low-performing schools in favor of better operators. Community colleges in the city can issue new charters now that Detroit Public Schools has lost its first-class district status. Other charters are available through Wayne RESA and Detroit Public Schools. The Legislature could also pass pending school reform legislation this year that could allow failing schools to be transferred to charter control freeing up more opportunities for high-performing operators.
In an exclusive interview with The Detroit News Ross said he has a plan to secure a charter for YES Prep but declined to offer details.
If he gets the charter Ross and Hamp will need to raise and/or borrow money to buy the former DPS school Ross said.
Another new initiative may be able to offer some help.
Scheduled to launch in the fall the High School Accelerator will offer up to $1 million to create rigorous small high schools for low-income students in the Detroit area.
Formed by Michigan Future Inc. the Skillman Foundation Kellogg Foundation and the McGregor Fund the accelerator aims to open more than 30 high schools in 10 years regardless of governance -- charter public or private said Tonya Allen vice president of the Skillman Foundation.
Lou Glazer President of Michigan Future Inc. said that 25000 is a huge number. If (they) are able to do this that would be terrific. The key is that we dont need more schools we need more quality schools.
Glazer is impressed with YES Preps results in Houston.
YES Prep is an open-enrollment charter school system serving 3500 low-income students. For the ninth year 100 percent of YES Preps graduating seniors have been accepted into four-year colleges and universities including Harvard and Yale.
Trying to do more
Fueled by a fierce urgency to bring high-quality schools to Detroit children Ross and Hamp recently formed the nonprofit More Good Schools. Theyve secured grants from the DeVos and Kellogg foundations for start-up costs including the salary of the newly hired principal of Yes Prep who is being trained in Houston.
The pair invited Gov. Jennifer Granholm to Houston last spring to meet leaders of YES Prep and KIPP to help woo them to Michigan.
The governor believes that all kids in Michigan deserve the chance to attend quality schools (regardless of their governance) said Chuck Wilbur the governors senior education advisor confirming her trip to Houston. If she can play a role in bringing the best school management companies to Michigan to be involved in running charters or to be involved in turning around ... schools shes happy to do that.
At University Preparatory Academy the graduation rate is 100 percent and 94 percent of students go on to college. Still U Prep needs to do more.
While we are able to graduate our kids and send them to college at the same rate of Grosse Pointe or Birmingham we dont believe our students are yet as college ready as the kids from the more affluent suburbs Ross said. Thats our next challenge -- to make sure they have the same academic skills when they hit college as the best of the suburban kids.
Henry Ford Academy has 480 students at its high school campus in Dearborn. The new Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies will open downtown with 390 students this fall and will eventually expand to about 900 students.
Despite our best efforts to start new schools the scale of the problem was still unmet Ross said. We were not going to be able to create enough schools fast enough to provide opportunities for thousands of kids who otherwise were ending up dropping out.
