Close To Immortal: Michigan Won't Close Failing Public Schools After All

Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction Brian Whiston and the state Department of Education have issued a press release announcing they would not close any of the 38 failing public schools cited in an earlier warning.

Instead, the state will work with school districts in Benton Harbor; Bridgeport-Spaulding; Detroit Public Community Schools/Education Achievement Authority; Kalamazoo; Muskegon Heights; Pontiac; River Rouge; and Saginaw to try to improve academic performance.

The “action steps” identified in the release include:

“will be entering into discussions ...” “develop Partnership Agreements ...” “agreed to delay any next level of accountability actions ...”

Whiston is reported in the release to have spoken of “positive opportunities” to “work together” with “multiple partners at the table” to “identify a plan of supports and interventions” that put a “broad spectrum of technical expertise and resources in the hands of the struggling school district.”

ForTheRecord says: Translated, that means the worst schools in the state of Michigan will remain open. The state has still never closed a conventional public school for poor academic performance.

However, the authorizers of public charter schools in Michigan have closed 27 charters where poor academic performance was cited.