Detroit NAACP Wants District & State Records Over Concern for Burgeoning Classrooms for Mostly Black Students

The Detroit chapter of the NAACP is gunning for a fight with the Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. The organization is seeking records from the city's public schools about the district's reorganization and Gov. Snyder's office on his plans to cut school funding statewide.

The district faces a $327 million deficit. Financial manager Robert Bobb submitted a plan to the state that called for closing about half of the district's 141 schools and increasing some classes to 60 students.

In a statement, Detroit Branch NAACP President Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony said, “For the NAACP, this crosses a fundamental line in the sand. With 60 kids in a class, students can’t learn and teachers can’t teach. That’s not education at all. It’s warehousing. And it violates the law and our fundamental standards of decency. Source: Click on Detroit

“Michigan has a higher rate of incarceration than nearly any other state. And they just announced plans to build yet another jail at a cost of $300 million. Our public school system is being destroyed while the Prison Industrial Complex is making a lot of people rich. Lansing’s priorities are backward. Kids must come first.”

I agree that this may rise to the level of a second look, but I must also add that there is some parental responsibility necessary to change the course of what is happening in many schools in many cities across the U.S. You can't leave it up to the schools to be teachers and babysitters for your kids. You have to take an active role in their education, including education policy. If the NAACP succeeds and finds that city did the wrong thing by black kids, what's next?