Rochelle Riley: Fix Detroit by fixing the city's schools

Rochelle Riley | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Nikolai Vitti at Mackinac Policy Conference Detroit Public Schools Community District Nikolai Vitti talked about changes he wants to make in the district during the Mackinac Policy Conference

James Carville declared it’s “the economy, stupid” — let’s be clear that here in Detroit, “It’s the schools, stupid.”

Teachers get it.

City officials finally got it, even if they couldn’t convince the Michigan Legislature of it.

And at a recent Michigan Chronicle breakfast discussion, some of our most prominent and generous corporate CEOs made clear that they get it, too.

The nearly 200 attendees at the June Pancakes and Politics gathering voted their view of the biggest barrier to people moving into or staying in the city. The results? Sixty-nine percent said schools, while 29% said crime. (High taxes and joblessness fell way behind.)

What are a city and its businesses to do?

“One of the most practical things we can do to help education and to build jobs in the city is to rebuild technical education,” Gerard Anderson, chairman and CEO of DTE Energy, said. “We need to turn around mind-sets about what constitutes a good job — because when you look at these jobs in our company, they are great jobs.”

He cited a project in which several companies, including DTE, have joined the city to increase enrollment at — and the stature and offerings of — A. Philip Randolph Technical High School in Detroit. The school, which once had more than 600 students, now has about 100 “at a time when we’re having a hard time filling our skilled-trade jobs,” Anderson said. “That is such an obvious disconnect.”

Randolph and other career education schools could provide training for thousands of jobs that exist in metro Detroit and across the state, but some education officials — and some parents and advocates — are reluctant to push career training over college preparedness. That sentiment exists at a time when thousands of students are leaving high school unprepared for college or jobs.

Dr. William Pickard, chairman and CEO of Global Automotive Alliance, said changing education in Detroit must begin with a change in attitude, an acknowledgment that all children can learn.

“The culture (must become) that our students can believe and can achieve,” he said. “We need supplies, we need money ... but the paramount thing is our students can achieve.”

Strategic Staffing Solutions President and CEO Cindy Pasky told the audience that companies should bring employees on, then train them for existing jobs and that all businesses must remember that we’re talking about children.

“There has to be an environment where children are first and not thought of as a dollar sign,” she said, adding that more businesses should be involved in projects like the Randolph School project, which her company also supports.

Lear President and CEO Matt Simoncini said the school district can be improved and made great, but it means making all schools work together for all children.

“Whether you believe in charters and them supplementing the schools, you have basically 13 independent school systems operating in the city of Detroit with no traffic cop,” he said. “We have communities that are over-served and communities that are underserved. We don’t have a level playing field. This is unacceptable.”

Simoncini said that the new superintendent shouldn’t be held accountable for education across the city when “he controls only half the schools” that are educating Detroit children. But, he said, Nikolai Vitti must have absolute support for the children for whom he is responsible.

More: Vitti: Give teachers better resources, rely less on contracted staff

“We need to give him the tools to be successful,” Simoncini said. “He’s got the track record. He’s committed, and I think he will be successful if we give him the opportunity.”

But Simoncini reiterated that fixing the schools requires commitment from everyone with a vested interest in the city.

“We need a Detroit education commission, and we need to work together in a holistic approach,” he said. “The Detroit Public School system plays a major part, but until we figure out how to collaborate with charter schools, education will be lacking in the city of Detroit.

“We had this giant coalition that was put together,” he said, referring to the massive task force that created a plan the Michigan Legislature largely ignored. “We had Republicans, Democrats, public, private all working together to find a solution, and it didn’t get passed through in its entirety, and I find that unacceptable. This problem is owned by the governor. This problem is owned by the state. Mayor (Mike) Duggan has asked for the authority, for oversight. I think we need to give it to him. That will go a long way to improving the neighborhoods because if you’re young and newly married or single living in the city, once you have kids, the decision you have to make is ‘Where do I send them? Do I pay money for a private school that you can walk to or get to or do you just move’ ... We have to solve that riddle because kids need to be able to walk to school in their neighborhood. That’s the American way.”

I remember the American way. I remember watching a small community back the schools because they knew they were supporting the future of the town.

Detroit is no different, except that people have been watching rather than acting.

More: New Detroit school chief brings back a familiar face: Alycia Meriweather

Now that the district has the leadership it needs — and (with former interim superintendent Alycia Meriweather coming aboard) the team it needs, what it needs now is for the city’s entire business community, parents and advocates to come together to all work toward a single common goal of preparing kids for life, no matter what that looks like.

How do we fix Detroit?

It’s the schools, stupid.

Contact Rochelle Riley at rriley99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @rochelleriley.