The answer, as is the case so many times, can be summed up in one word: unions. However, by 2003, the school district's union leaders felt increasingly threatened by Teach for America's talented presence in classrooms. Some leaders demanded the district rid of TFA, say sources who were on the district's school board and others who worked with the district then.

What did Katy end up doing? Went to Chrlotte N.C. to continue with TFA.

Inicdentally, the Other Club had a post ptoday that deals with teh primary motivation of the education monopoly. Here's an excerpt:

Ken Shelton, Middle Schools Computer teacher: "...the ultimate goal is to educate the children..."In contrast to Mr. Shelton, the goal of a teachers union is to perpetuate the teachers union and the political objectives of its leaders, and the goal of the typical school board is to be re-elected. That is, the major players are players of politics. They do not care about winning a game called education.

...my solution is the solution of Milton Friedman: school choice. Parental control. Government run public school monopolies have been an abject failure, one that we will be paying for for a long time to come. The Macinac Center for Public Policy (what can say "Michigan" more than that?) has a good post from 2001 on this subject (it's long, but an excellent read).

Imagine what it would be like if you were only allowed to shop at one grocery store based on where your residence was. Or gas up at only one gas station. Or one home improvement store, etc. How would those entities develop over time? Would they seek the best technologies? Would they strive to contain costs? Would they continually endeavor to increase customer satisfaction? With monopolies, the answer is always "no." Monopolies, especially government monopolies, do the bare minimum with the full maximum. It's their nature. Only school choice will save the kids of Detroit.