Setting up our schools for failure seems to be the plan

You seriously have to wonder if state officials are setting up local school districts for failure.

According to Hamtramck Schools Superintendent Tom Niczay, all schools have to pass certain performance tests, and that those who finish in the bottom 5 percent are subject to a number of actions, from being taken over by a state-appointed manager to abolishing the district, and then absorbing students into another district.

Hamtramck has one school, Holbrook Elementary, that could face action.

There is a flaw in this system, as one Hamtramck teacher pointed out in a recent school board meeting.

Even if the schools pass this year, at some point everyone will be on the bottom 5 percent. In other words, someone has to be on the bottom of each testing round even though they passed the year before.

In our view, this is an attack on union teachers, and an attempt to privatize schools via the charter school system.

Just a few decades ago our country’s educational system was the best in the world – the cornerstone of our democracy.

It seems to us that politicians – and even educators – have been hell bent on dismantling public education.

We need to boost education, not continue to defund it and raise hurdles that will set up schools for failure.