By Harrison Blackmond, DFER Michigan State Director
Parents, community leaders, and school choice advocacy groups march on Florida state capitol
March, 2010
A few weeks ago, a fellow board member of a coed, college prep catholic high school in Detroit expressed concerns to me about the quality of education children in Detroit Public Schools receive. The high school, Detroit Cristo Rey, has to use precious resources and time providing remediation in order to prepare new students for the more rigorous college preparatory curriculum at the school. My colleague commented that the situation will never change unless those who are directly impacted by the lack of quality public education in Detroit stand up and demand it. It raised an important question: how can the education reform movement capture and help direct the discontent of parents, educators, legislators and concerned citizens into a force for education reform?
In Michigan, like most states, the education reform movement appears to be led, for the most part, by those suspected of having other agendas. Whether true or not, this suspicion undermines the legitimacy of our efforts and authority to speak for those most adversely affected by the status quo – parents, students and the communities in which they reside.