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After the Fall: Continuity and Change in Detroit, 1981–1995

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Jeffrey Mirel
Jeffrey Mirel*
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
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Extract

In my book, The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System, I argue that at key periods in history, the politics of education in Detroit either foreshadowed or directly paralleled developments in American politics writ large. During the early 1930s, for example, educational politics in Detroit fractured along lines that looked very much like what would become the national political realignment over the New Deal. Similarly, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, Detroit witnessed the formation of a liberal-labor-black coalition whose membership paralleled the larger civil rights movement in the nation. This coalition came to power in Detroit almost a decade before Lyndon Johnson's massive electoral triumph in 1964, and its successes and failures, particularly in the area of school desegregation, foreshadowed the rise and fall of liberalism in the latter part of the 1960s. Indeed, in the early 1960s, some political commentators who tracked school elections in Detroit and Michigan, had already identified conservative voting trends among the white working-class, trends that eventually produced the “Nixon-” and later “Reagan-Democrats.” Finally, the collapse of the liberal-labor-black coalition in Detroit in 1970 signaled what would be the larger crack-up of American liberalism, a collapse whose repercussions still reverberate in American politics today.

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Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , Fall 1998 , pp. 237 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 by New York University 

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References

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5 The Children's Defense Fund study is cited in Lee, Valerie E., Croninger, Robert G., and Smith, Julia B., “Parental Choice of Schools and Social Stratification in Education: The Paradox of Detroit” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 16:4 (Winter 1994), 438.Google Scholar

6 Tschirhart, Don, “Election will revamp Detroit's school board” Detroit News (October 28, 1982), p. 4B; Radelet, , “Stillness at Detroit's Racial Divide,” pp. 173–190; New Detroit, Inc., “The Face of Difference,” p. 1. Busing was certainly not the only reason that the Detroit schools lost enrollment. The poor quality of the education in most of the city schools also had an impact. Indeed, a 1990 survey conducted by the Detroit Free Press found that 14 percent of all African Americans in Detroit (and 25 percent of blacks with incomes over $20,000) sent their children to private or parochial schools. The figure was 43 percent for white Detroiters. Gilchrest, Brenda, “A Choice that is Academic: Education System's Curriculum Woes Drive Students Away” Detroit Free Press (December 17, 1990), p. 1A.Google Scholar

7 According to school leaders, the improvement of scores by elementary students was due mainly to teachers emphasizing the mastery of basic skills. See, Wowk, Mike, “Students' test scores on the rise” Detroit News (December 6, 1982), p. 1A; “Students raise scores in state test” Detroit News (December 21, 1985), p. 1B; Eldridge, Earle, “Reading and math scores up in Detroit” Detroit News (December 19, 1987), p. 1B.Google Scholar

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9 On the commission's report see, Ankeny, Robert, “City schools called lax on discipline” Detroit News (December 12, 1984), p. 3A. The survey of teachers is described in Russell, Ron, “Amid disorder, education fails” Detroit News (June 7, 1987), pp. 1A, 15A. For additional examples see, Russell, Ron, “Promising teacher gives up after students beat him twice” Detroit News (May 10, 1984), p. 1B, 2B; “Six shot at Detroit [high school] ballgame” Detroit News (October 19, 1985), pp. 1A, 3A; Editorial, “Toward Better Schools: Discipline”, Detroit News (May 20, 1987), p. 14A. The mother of a student wounded in a 1984 shooting at Southeastern High School, the third shooting that week in a Detroit high school, summed up the situation, “Things are pretty bad when you send him to school not knowing if he'll come back alive in the afternoon.” Tschirhart, Don and LaMarre, Linda, “Another Detroit student shot” Detroit News (October 25, 1984), pp. 1A, 9A.Google Scholar

10 “Panel gives schools ‘F’ in discipline” Detroit News (February 24, 1983), pp. 1B, 5B; Russell, Ron, “Schools ‘tolerate violence,’ commission says” Detroit News (July 20, 1983).Google Scholar

11 For more detail on this see Angus, David and Mirel, Jeffrey, Equality, Curriculum and the American High School, 1890–1995 (New York, forthcoming).Google Scholar

12 Tschirhart, Don, “New education board to face old problems” Detroit News (August 12, 1982), p. 6B.Google Scholar

13 The quote on the auto industry is from Darden, Joe T., Hill, Richard Child, Thomas, June, and Thomas, Richard, Detroit: Race and Uneven Development (Philadelphia, 1987), p. 27.Google Scholar

14 Richards, Robert J., “School tax elections” Detroit News (October 30, 1987), p. 4B.Google Scholar

15 In 1984–85, for example, Detroit received 55.2 percent of its revenue from the state, 34.3 percent from local taxes, and 10.5 percent from the federal government. By 1991–92, the schools were getting 60.1 percent of their funds from the state, 28.6 percent locally, and 11.2 percent from the federal government. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 1988 (Washington, DC, 1988), pp. 88–89; National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 1993 (Washington, DC, 1993), p. 100. See also, Tschirhart, Don, “Detroit teachers shun concessions” Detroit News (August 13, 1982), p. 3A; Dawsey, Darrell, “School budget allows no pay raises” Detroit News (July 2, 1987), p. 3B.Google Scholar

16 Varon, Laura D., “Red Ink” Detroit News (June 21, 1988), p. 1B. Between 1974 and 1984, for example, the Detroit schools had fallen from 61st to 119th in per pupil expenditures and from 49th to 135th in average teacher salaries. Russell, Ron, “Per-pupil spending drops” Detroit News (March 28, 1984), p. 1A; Russell, Ron, “Inequities in schools growing” Detroit News (April 16, 1985), p. 1A.Google Scholar

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18 Wowk, Mike, “Immediate results seen from school millage hike” Detroit News (November 8, 1984, p. 1D, 8D; Wowk, Mike, “Detroit teachers get 10% pay raise” Detroit News (August 27, 1985, p. 1A Google Scholar

19 Dawsey, , “School budget allows no pay raises”; Russell, Ron, “No money for raises, teachers are told” Detroit News (August, 1987), p. 3B; Russell, Ron, “Teacher strike hits Detroit” Detroit News (September 2, 1987), p. 1A; Russell, Ron, “School can't meet costs of contract” Detroit News (September 19, 1987), p. 1B.Google Scholar

20 Russell, Ron, “School board recall urged as classes resume” Detroit News (September 22, 1987), p. 1A; The president of New Detroit is quoted in Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, pp. 38; Bates is quoted in Girard, Fred and Sinclair, Norman, “School boards' junkets, chauffeurs rile teachers” Detroit News (September 2, 1987), p. 1A, 5A.Google Scholar

21 Russell, Ron, “Detroit school deficit put at $50 million” Detroit News (September 24, 1987), p. 1B; Russell, Ron, “School woes lure many ‘Mr. Fixits’” Detroit News (June 21, 1988), p. 1B; Russell, Ron, “School cutback talk fuels recall drive” Detroit News (October 16, 1987), p. 1A; Gave, Brenda Ingersoll, “Groups launch school recall” Detroit News (October 18, 1987), p. 1B; Ron Russell, Schools to lay off 500, seek tax hike” Detroit News (October 29, 1987), p. 1B.Google Scholar

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23 Russell, Ron, “Vote called ‘repudiation’ of board” Detroit News (August 4, 1988), p. 3B; Russell, Ron, “Detroit teachers' union backs 4 school challengers” Detroit News (September 30, 1988), p. 4B; Editorial, “HOPE for School Board” Detroit News (October 16, 1988), p. ?; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, pp. 39–40.Google Scholar

24 Editorial, “HOPE for School Board”; Bradley, Ann, “Crusaders in Detroit Fight to Keep Board Seats” Education Week 12:7 (October 21, 1992), pp. 1, 10; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, pp. 39–40.Google Scholar

25 Vance, N. Scott, “Young backs school millage, incumbents” Detroit News (October 8, 19880, p. 1B; “Candidates deny funding charges” Detroit News (October 12, 1988), p. 3B; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, pp. 41–45.Google Scholar

26 Ravitz, Joshua, “School board panel favors tax boost, bond measure” Detroit News (September 2, 1988), p. 1B. On the campaign pledge to bring about an education revolution see Vance, N. Scott and Russell, Ron, “Young again suggests city control of schools” Detroit News (January 6, 1989), p. 3B.Google Scholar

27 Russell, Ron, “Detroit schools plan no big cuts despite defeat of millage hike” Detroit News (November 3, 1988), p. 1B; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, p. 43; The education reporter is quoted from Russell, , “New school board hopes to fix financial mess without state help,” p. 1B.Google Scholar

28 Russell, Ron, “Patrick heads school board” Detroit News (January 11, 1989), p. 1B; Russell, Ron and Mulqueen, Dennis B., “School official wary of state takeover” Detroit News (January 12, 1989), p. 3B; Hornbeck, Mark, “State superintendent calls on city schools to solve deficit” Detroit News (January 24, 1989), p. 3B; Russell, Ron, “New school chief or no loan” Detroit News (March 3, 1989), p. 1B, 7B; Russell, , “New school board hopes to fix financial mess without state help”, p. 1B; Vance, and Russell, , “Young again suggests city control of schools”, p. 1B; Editorial, “Detroit School Discontent …” Detroit News (May 5, 1989), A14; Russell, Ron “Schools cancel tax vote plans” Detroit News (May 17, 1989), p. 1B.Google Scholar

29 None of these accomplishments came easily. See, for example, Twardon, Liz, “Porter gets interim job offer” Detroit News (May 10, 1989), p. 1A; Snider, William, “Detroit Officials See Belt-Tightening Moves as First Steps Along Road to Recovery” Education Week (August 2, 1989), p. 1, 27; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, pp. 48–49.Google Scholar

30 Russell, Ron, “Teachers agree to 6 percent pay raise” Detroit News (July 14, 1989), p. 1A, 6A; Russell, Ron, “School tax vote called test of Porter” Detroit News (July 16, 1989), 1B; Snider, , “Detroit Officials See Belt-Tightening Moves as First Steps Along Road to Recovery”; Snider, , “In Backing Tax Proposals, Voters Endorse School Reforms”.Google Scholar

31 Russell, , “Teachers agree to 6 percent pay raise”, p. 6A; Snider, , “In Backing Tax Proposals”; Hula, Richard C., Jelier, Richard W., and Schauer, Mark, “Making Educational Reform: Hard Times in Detroit, 1988–1995” Urban Education 32: 2 (May 1992), pp. 211–214.Google Scholar

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33 The HOPE team did pursue other initiatives besides empowerment and choice. One of the most interesting was the Detroit Compact in which school and business leaders worked together to aid high school graduates who had followed a rigorous, prescribed course of study in going to college or entering the workforce. While the HOPE team strongly supported this initiative, I have not included it as part of the overall HOPE strategy, as others have, because much of the groundwork for the Compact had been completed before the HOPE team took office. On the compact see, Russell, Ron, “School board gets scolding” Detroit News (September 22, 1988), p. 3B; Orr, Marion, “Urban Regimes and School Compacts: The Development of the Detroit School Compact” The Urban Review 25: 2 (1993), pp. 105–122); Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”, pp. 207–211.Google Scholar

34 The HOPE literature is quoted in Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, p. 41; Russell, Ron, “New school board hopes to fix financial mess without state help” Detroit News (January 1, 1989), pp. 1B, 4B; Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”, pp. 207–217. Actually, HOPE's empowered schools initiative was something of a compromise between the Chicago and Dade County efforts. Unlike Chicago it did not make parents and community members the key policy makers in the schools and unlike Dade County it did not explicitly make teachers partners with administrators in setting school policy. On the different forms of urban school decentralization in the 1980s and 1990s see, Rury, John L. and Mirel, Jeffrey E. “The Political Economy of Urban Education” in Apple, Michael (ed.) Review of Research in Education (Washington, DC, 1997), pp. 89–98.Google Scholar

35 Olson, Lynn, “Detroit Board Set to Vote on Plan ‘To Empower’ Schools” Education Week (March 18, 1992), p. 4; Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”, pp. 211–214, 231.Google Scholar

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38 On the “boutique schools” criticism see Bradley, , “Crusaders in Detroit Fight to Keep Board Seats”, p. 10; Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”, pp. 220–222; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, p. 50.Google Scholar

39 The 1973 strike was not the only walkout in which these types of issues played a role. Indeed, the issues of giving teachers greater power and demanding greater accountability from them as a result was part of the 1987 strike as well. In that case also the DFT adamantly opposed the proposals Russell, Ron, “Teachers offered raise tied to new funds” Detroit News (September 11, 1987), p. 9B. Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”, p. 211–212; see also Bradley, Ann, “Teachers in Detroit Strike over Proposal for Flexible Schools” Education Week (September 9, 1992), pp. 1, 21; Bradley, , “Crusaders in Detroit Fight to Keep Board Seats.” Google Scholar

40 Elliot is quoted in Bradley, , “Teachers in Detroit Strike over Proposal for Flexible Schools”, pp. 1, 21.Google Scholar

41 Martelock is quoted in Bradley, , “Crusaders in Detroit Fight to Keep Board Seats,” p. 10.Google Scholar

42 Olmstead, Patrick, and the board ally are quoted in Bradley, , “Crusaders in Detroit Fight to Keep Board Seats”, p. 10.Google Scholar

43 Bradley, Ann, “Detroit Teachers Defy Court's Back-to-Work Order” Education Week (September 30, 1992)m p. 9; Bradley, Ann, “Contract Accord in Detroit Ends 27-Day Teacher Strike” Education Week (October 7, 1992), p. 13; Bradley, , “Crusaders in Detroit Fight to Keep Board Seats”, p. 11.Google Scholar

44 Bradley, , “Crusaders in Detroit Fight to Keep Board Seats”, p. 11; Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”, pp. 221; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, p. 50.Google Scholar

45 Hayden, is quoted in Bradley, , “Crusaders in Detroit Fight to Keep Board Seats”, p. 10. Olmstead is quoted in Schmidt, Peter, “Voters Oust 3 Reformers From Detroit Board” Education Week (November 11, 1992), p. 5; Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics. Google Scholar

46 Somerfield, Meg, “Grant to Implement Comer Model in Detroit Schools” Education Week (July 13, 1994), p. 3; Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”, pp. 215–216.Google Scholar

47 “Detroit Parents Launch Effort To Recall Reformers on Board” Education Week (January 20, 1993), p. 2; Bradley, Ann, “Detroit School-Empowerment Plan Suffers Setback” Education Week (April 21, 1993), p. 5; Bradley, Ann, “Detroit Superintendent To Join Edison Project” Education Week (October 20, 1993), p.10; “People” Education Week (November 11, 1993), p. 3; Hula, et al., “Making Educational Reform”; Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics. Google Scholar

48 Bray, Thomas, “Is HOPE Dead?” Detroit News (1989). The unnamed board member is quoted in Hula, et al, “Making Reform Work”, p. 218; Young is quoted in Rich, , Black Mayors and School Politics, p. 53.Google Scholar

49 The unidentified church leader is quoted in Hula, et al, “Making Reform Work”, p. 220–221.Google Scholar

50 Moreover efforts at creating new union-management relationship similar to those developed by the United Auto Workers and General Motors in the Saturn Corporation (which in part inspired the HOPE team's efforts) continue to make news as delegations from both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association (NEA) have toured the Saturn plant, the most recent being led by NEA president Bob Chase in the fall of 1997. See, Archer, Jeff, “A Different Kind of Union: What an Innovative Car Company Can Teach Educators about ‘New Unionism’” Education Week October 29, 1997), pp. 27–31.Google Scholar

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54 Cohen, Deborah L., “Americans Say Family Life Worse, Survey Find” Education Week (December 15, 1993), p. 6.Google Scholar

55 Page, Clarence, “Racial politics isn't what it used to be” The Chicago Tribune (September 24, 1997), Sec. 1, p. 23.Google Scholar

56 Jones, Lisa C., “Dennis W. Archer: New Mayor in Motown” Ebony 50: 8 (June 1995), p. 72.Google Scholar

57 Johnson, Robert C., “Driving Forces for Change” Education Week 17: 17 (January 8, 1998), pp. 180–183; New Detroit, Inc. Detroit Public Schools System: A Plan for Fundamental Change (Detroit, 1997).Google Scholar

58 See for example, Hanushek, Eric A., “The Impact of Differential Expenditures on School Performance” Educational Researcher 18 (May 1989), pp. 45–62; ibid., “Measuring Investment in Education” Journal of Economic Perspectives 10: 4 (Fall 1996), pp. 9–30.Google Scholar

59 Michigan Department of Education, “MEAP District and School Proportions Report, 1995: Detroit Public Schools” (Lansing, 1996).Google Scholar