Detroit Parents Want Educational Options; When Will the City Catch Up?

Nearly 80 percent of parents in Detroit would choose an educational option other than their child’s assigned public school, according to a survey by The Detroit News and the Thompson Foundation. 

The survey also found an even split among support for different types of educational options:  20.8 percent favored Detroit Public Schools; 23.8 percent for charter schools; 23.5 percent for private schools, and 17.6 percent preferred schools outside Detroit.

Only one in five Detroit residents believes that their child's assigned public school is the best educational setting for that child. Despite not having the full slate of educational options available to families—Michigan has no publicly-funded private school choice options—parents are already choosing alternatives to Detroit’s schools.

It’s time for real educational choice in Michigan, and especially Detroit, where the following statistics are the sad reality for the struggling city (all statistics courtesy the New Detroit coalition):

• Only 3 percent of Detroit’s 4th graders and 4 percent of its 8th graders meet national math standards(source: www.excellentschoolsdetroit.org).
• 2010 Michigan on-time high school graduation for African American students was 58%, compared to Latinos (64%), Native Americans (66%), whites (82%), Asians (88%) and 76% overall.
• Only 2 percent of Detroit’s high school students are prepared for college-level math and 11 percent for college-level reading (source: www.excellentschoolsdetroit.org).
• African-American males in Michigan have the lowest high school graduation rate in the country at 33%. White males in the state gradate at a rate of 74% (source: www.umich.edu).
• The achievement gap continues to persist as evidenced by the 2009 Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test – see chart (source: www.michigan.gov/mde).
• Nationally in 2008, the status dropout rate for white persons was 4.8% compared to 9.9% for black and 18.3% for Hispanic persons. “Status dropout rate” is defined as the percentage of 16- through 24-year-olds who are not enrolled in school and have not earned a high school credential (source: nces.ed.gov).

The survey polled 800 Detroit residents by landlines and cellphones from September 22-25 by Glengariff Group Inc.  The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Want to learn more about public polling on educational choice in cities and states across the country? Download our comprehensive polling report, released last month.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

Detroit Parents Choosing Educational Alternatives in Strong Numbers

One of the major tenets behind the school choice movement is that parents know their children better than bureaucrats and are in the best position to make educational choices for their children.

Supporters of a quality education for every child would argue that if a child is not getting a quality education in his or her assigned school, that child should have the choice at attend a different school. Furthermore, they believe that parents should be able to shop for the best education, and additional choices will raise all boats via much-needed competition.  Both arguments bring us to one place: school choice.

According to The Detroit News, parents in the Motor City are not only shopping for better schools, but they're doing so in high numbers.  Nearly three-fourths of parents report shopping for a school besides their assigned public school, according to a recent survey conducted by Michigan Future, Inc., a nonpartisan think-tank.

With 71 percent of parents taking advantage of educational options in Detroit, here's where students are going:

• 55 percent attend their assigned public school
• 22.5 percent attend charter schools in Detroit
• 15.2 percent attend public schools outside of Detroit
• 5.1 percent attend magnet schools in Detroit
• 2.5 percent attend private school or are homeschooled

Detroit has lost more than 100,000 students over the past decade, and today serves 90,499 students in the its public school district.  Of those students, 47.2 percent live in poverty and 78.2 percent are enrolled in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.  In addition, approximately 45,000 children attend public charter schools.