Education

Grosse Pointe schools face their own reckoning as enrollment falls

March 21, 2019, 3:11 PM

For years, Freep columnist Nancy Kaffer writes, Grosse Pointers took pride in their excellent public schools. They still do. But times have changed:


Graduating classes get smaller by the year. (Photo: Nancy Derringer)

There's a story that's told, either implicitly or right out loud, depending on who you pal around with, that what happened to Detroit, and Detroit schools, is because of some moral failing on the part of Detroiters.

That's not true.

What happened in Detroit is what's happening in Grosse Pointe: Population declined. Revenue fell. It can happen anywhere, even to you.

And that is the truth, Muffy. Enrollment has declined for years in the Pointes, and falling birth rates -- a trend across the state -- are starting to imperil the district's future, at least in its present form, with its walkable neighborhood schools from the Park to the Woods. The district is starting to consider various consolidation plans, which include closing schools and moving students out of their neighborhood-school boundaries. 

At least some of the problem, Kaffer writes, is not just in funding schools, but in how the Pointes have always presented themselves to the rest of Metro Detroit -- not exactly as a welcoming community:

We're talking about five cities with a distinct hierarchy among themselves: Not only are non-residents barred from Grosse Pointe's city parks, Grosse Pointers can't even go to one another's parks. 

Still, statewide, enrollment is declining along with test scores. If Michigan doesn't solve its school problems, Kaffer writes, "This is a systemic problem that requires systemic solutions. Or this — what's happening right now — will happen to you."


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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