NAACP hears Detroiters' views on charter schools in the city

Are charter schools adding value in the city of Detroit?

That was a question that led to some spirited exchanges during a hearing tonight in Detroit to address the quality of education in the city.

The NAACP, which last year issued a moratorium on funding for charter schools, held the fifth in a series of public hearings across the nation at Detroit Collegiate Academy-Northwestern High School in Detroit.

The hearings are being held by the NAACP's National Task Force for Quality Education.

Derrick Johnson of Mississippi, vice chair of the NAACP board of directors and a member of the task force, asked some pointed questions of Kisha Verdusco, who heads the charter school office for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Johnson is a graduate of the Detroit district.

Verdusco, during her presentation to the task force, had just outlined how the district's charter school office holds its charter schools accountable, including banning schools from having contracts with management companies that require all the school's funding be turned over to the company. She had also noted that charter schools overall aren't performing better than traditional public schools.

Related:

Superintendent: State won't close schools this year

Detroit can't afford to make more mistakes with its schools

"Why do we need charter schools?" Johnson asked,  saying charters are taking resources from traditional public schools. "How are you adding value?"

"I think you would have to speak with the parents of children who are in charter schools," Verdusco responded. "They can tell you concrete examples of why that choice is working for their particular child."

The task force heard a multitude of criticisms of charter schools during the hearing that lasted more than three hours. Some said they've led to the problems faced by the Detroit district. Some said they aren't accountable or transparent.

But Denise Ford came with a different perspective. She said she's a grandmother of 15 children — 10 of whom have attended charter schools.

"They're not all bad," Ford said. "Parents will go where they can get quality education ... to the gates of hell if that's what it takes."

Still, Ford said she agreed with the moratorium and said there needs to be more accountability for charter schools.

"But don't knock all of them," she said.

Hazel Dukes, who cochairs the task force, told Ford parents have a right to choose their child's education. And she said the NAACP "will never take that right away ... It's not about where you send your child to school. It's about quality. If your children are receiving quality at a charter school, that's where you should be sending your child."

The task force heard from a number of people, including Alycia Meriweather, the interim superintendent of the DPSCD; Tonya Allen, president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation; Tom Pedroni, a professor of curriculum studies at Wayne State University; as well as representatives of parent, union and student groups.

The point was made throughout the hearing that there are good and bad charters, just like there are good and bad traditional public schools.

"We’re not out to kill charter schools. We just want transparency and accountability," said Alice Huffman, another of the chairs of the task force.

"We know we have problems in public education, and we want to talk about that as well," she said.

The task force has held hearings in Los Angeles, Memphis, Tenn., and New Haven, Conn.

"We could not do our hearings and not come to Detroit," Huffman said. "This is serious business."

"The eyes of the nation are now on the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit, particularly because of the appointment of DeVos," the Rev. Wendell Anthony, the president of the NAACP Detroit Branch, said, referring to Betsy DeVos, the west Michigan native who is now the U.S. Secretary of Education. DeVos is a strong advocate for charter schools, and her name came up often during the hearing from those who blame the policies she's pushed for the state of education in the city.

The task force heard about the impact of state control over the DPSCD district, the lack of equitable funding for schools, the impact that charter schools are having on the DPSCD and efforts to improve the quality of schools.

"Public schools work," Meriweather said. "There are things in the system that may be broken. But not everybody in the system is broken. We need to look at the things that are working and replicate them. We need to look at the things that are not working and fix them."

She talked about the district's efforts to create innovative programs,   including the addition of Montessori programs, dual-language immersion programs as well as programs that focus on science, technology, engineering, the arts and math.

Amari Harris, a student at Renaissance High School, noted that the debate over charter schools often pits the charters against DPSCD.

"Students get caught in the middle," Harris said.

Virgil Mason, a student at Chandler Park Academy High School, a Detroit charter school, talked about his experiences. He talked about attending a charter school that abruptly closed and the difficulty he and his siblings had getting their transcripts.

"My (test) scores are still missing and I couldn't go to the school I wanted," Mason said.

Mason called for there to be just one authorizer for charter schools in the city — one that is locally elected by residents.

Mason said the city needs a "stronger system that can support our families."

Contact Lori Higgins: 313-222-6651, lhiggins@freepress.com or @LoriAHiggins.