http://www.freep.com/article/20101123/NEWS01/11230353/Detroit-Public-Schools-to-lose-19-million

In 2002 DPS had 159,000 students.

http://www.data360.org/pub_dp_report.aspx?Data_Plot_Id=538

In the last 20 years, DPS had over 200,000 students.

These children have not disappeared, they and  their families have opted out of DPS.

The majority of Detroit's children now attend either suburban schools of choice or public charter schools.

It's time to stop pretending that DPS's student population is equivalent to the school aged children in Detroit, they're a small and shrinking minority of those children.

If we want to help Detroit's children, aid must be given to all of them in a nondiscriminatory manner, based on their needs, and not based on politics.

For example, we should not give $400M to DPS, but rather consider the alternatives:

1. allocate the money equally to each DPS student as a one time $5,479 transition fee to be split equally between the family and his/her new school and close all of DPS permanently ASAP.

2. Give all of the approximately 200,000  students who live in Detroit $2,000 each to improve their test scores as backpack funding, following them wherever they goDPS now has 73,000 students.

In 2002 DPS had 159,000 students.

http://www.data360.org/pub_dp_report.aspx?Data_Plot_Id=538

In the last 20 years, DPS had over 200,000 students.

These children have not disappeared, they and  their families have opted out of DPS.

The majority of Detroit's children now attend either suburban schools of choice or public charter schools.

It's time to stop pretending that DPS's student population is equivalent to the school aged children in Detroit, they're a small and shrinking minority of those children.

If we want to help Detroit's children, aid must be given to all of them in a nondiscriminatory manner, based on their needs, and not based on politics.

For example, we should not give $400M to DPS, but rather consider the alternatives:

1. allocate the money equally to each DPS student as a one time $5,479 transition fee to be split equally between the family and his/her new school and close all of DPS permanently ASAP.

2. Give all of the approximately 200,000  students who live in Detroit $2,000 each to improve their test scores as backpack funding, following them wherever they go

3. setup a $400M fund to provide a partial college scholarship to all students residing in Detroit who graduate with a "B" or better, making college more affordable to them.  (Similar to the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship)