Detroit Education Reform: Few Details Emerge On Michigan College Promise
First Posted: 06/21/11 06:25 PM ET Updated: 06/21/11 06:34 PM ET
When Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) presented sweeping reforms to Detroit's -- and, eventually, Michigan's -- schools on Monday, he accompanied the news of the drastic plan to create a new authority for the city's lowest-performing schools with a promise.
"We're going to launch a major initiative to raise resources from the business community," Snyder said, to pay for every one of Detroit's high school graduates to attend two years of college or vocational school.
That promise immediately received high praise from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Monday. If the plan succeeds, Duncan said, "you're going to see a massive influx of families back into the city."
"This will be great for children. This will be great for education. It will be great for the school system. But I also think it will be an amazing economic development tool."
Synder said the scholarship fund would be modeled after a similar program for residents of Kalamazoo, Mich. But few details on the plan -- its timeline, its funding, its parameters -- have been disclosed.
Philanthropic support of schools has been gaining ground as one way to shore up failing school