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Ten years ago, an explosive lawsuit against the state was filed on behalf of Detroit students, alleging such poor learning conditions that it sent shockwaves across the country and drew attention to a literacy crisis in city schools.
A $94.4 million settlement gave the Detroit Public Schools Community District the resources it needed to hire hundreds of academic interventionists to work with struggling students. Other changes have included reducing class sizes in early grades, tutoring, and merit pay for teachers whose schools or classrooms reached ambitious literacy goals. Steady improvement on state exams have followed these interventions.
But the settlement money will run out after this school year, and the election of five people to the DPSCD board Nov. 3 will help decide how the district responds. Their big decision will be how and whether to maintain the interventionists, as well as other strategies the settlement funded.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said earlier this year that he wants the district to prioritize keeping the interventionists. But doing so could be costly, and it’s unclear where the money would come from.
Chalkbeat asked the 34 board candidates what the district should prioritize. Nineteen of the candidates responded. Here’s the full list of candidates. Also, if you’re voting in the election, remember that there are two types of school board races for DPSCD on the ballot: one for four four-year terms and the other for a partial two-year term.
Here’s what they told us:
Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.
