Special Board Meeting
November 20, 2017
Legislative Platform and
District Charter Schools

DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT

 District Charter Schools: Facts
• A review of revenue and expenditures has the district breaking near even and
not overbudget
• 2016-17 Academic performance comparison: DPSCD charters 20%; Detroit
charters 21%, DPSCD 11% ELA; DPSCD charters 11%, Detroit charters 12%,
DPSCD 7% mathematics; DPSCD charters 4%, Detroit charters 3%, DPSCD 4%
science; DPSCD charters 3%, Detroit charters 6%, DPSCD 8% social studies.
Enrollment DPSCD ~44K v. DPSCD charter ~4K. Comparison of two Detroit
charter authorizer provides a ~30% IEP student to ~10% IEP student
comparison.
• 13 schools, FTE ~4,174. Decrease of 325 from projection. New Paradigm
Schools transferring to Grand Valley at the end of the school year ~325 FTE
• 7 schools owned by the district and leased to charters
• 1 school (3 locations) former EAA schools contract expires at year end;
another 5 at the end of 2019; 3 in 2020; and another 3 in 2022
• Despite current reorganization, which reduced staff to school ratio, DPSCD still

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 Pros and Cons for Continuing to Approve District
Charter Schools
Pros

Cons

• Creates opportunity to improve
charter quality in the city by
applying higher standards for review
and oversight than other authorizes.

• Scare resources (time, energy, effort, funding,
political capital) should be focused on improving our
schools, not charters. Focus outside of that reduces
our chances for success for the schools we are most
responsible for improving.

• Provides opportunity to create a
portfolio of higher performing
traditional public schools and
charters run by the district, which
positions district to own the process
of opening and closing schools in the
city, not outside entities.

• Charter enrollment, even when authorized by the
district, reduces district enrollment and revenue.
Most DPSCD charters two miles within traditional
schools.
• Innovative programs need to be implemented in
traditional public schools, where programs are
limited. Expanding them in district charters creates
unnecessary competition.
• Difficult to manage a communication strategy about
focusing on traditional public schools to increase
performance and enrollment; and competing with
charters while authorizing them.
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