ENG 102 Response 4

ENG 102 Response 4

“Why a Michigan High School is Ground Zero for US Politics”

August 30, 2011

                On April 22, 2011, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” a show on MSNBC, featured a school in the Detroit Public school system, by the name of “Catherine Ferguson High School.”  This is a school that is for pregnant teen mothers, and teen mothers who have already had children, to get an opportunity to earn a high school diploma and attend college. This segment is about the issues the school faces to stay open, when the city government, whom are which taken over by the Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager, decides to close the school if they couldn’t find a private company to take it over. The Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager  basically comes into the city of Detroit and tells them that the people that they have elected to office is only for show, meaning, they have no real power to make decisions about the city. The DPSEM, figures that sense the local elected politicians can’t get the city of Detroit back to its former glorious, prosperous days that they needed to step in and do it themselves. The DPSEM, thinks that this school is somewhat costly to run, and therefore has decided that this school will be one of the schools, that will be eliminated from the school system. The students and teachers protest this decision, and end up getting arrested by the local police, and their cries to be heard go unanswered because the local police turn on the sirens to drown out the protests from the cameras.

                This whole story focuses on what “The Rachel Maddow Show,” calls “REALLY REALLY REALLY, BIG GOVERNMENT!” The story focuses on the government being given unlimited power to take over local cities and towns, and make desions for them. The million dollar question that I want to know, and what the citizens of Detroit want to know, is how can the government come in and say that the people you have elected to office to make decisions for you, no longer matter? This is a prime example of how not to run a school system. Does the government think that my taking power from elected city officials that the Detroit Public School System will be better off? I understand the reasoning behind the government stepping in to govern the school system, but what I don’t under is how it’s going to make the school system better. If the state government is saying that the city elected government isn’t capable of running their own schools, then what makes them think they can? Is it because they feel that since they are the “BIG” government, that school officials are more likely to fall in line to what they feel the schools should be doing?

                I am appalled to know that the government could come in at any moment, and take over my cities public school system, just because they feel that they can do a better job than the elected officials. I feel that once a community has elected someone to an office, they are assuming that this person is capable of doing the job. Electing people to office to govern them makes people feel powerful, but if you take that away it makes them feel powerless. Don’t get me wrong, if the elected officials are living up to their job then they should be voted out, and someone who is capable of doing the job, should replace them. The US school systems have been the same for many years, as a matter of fact, since the founding of the United States, many years ago.

                According to Sir. Ken Robinson, since the founding of the US the school system hasn’t changed and is being run like a factory. Well maybe it’s time for the school system to change, but not get taken over by the state government. There are a few reasons why local schools should be taken over by the state government, and those reasons could be lacking of city funding to run special programs, the city government is corrupt, and if the school system doesn’t improve it could loose federal funding. Taking over a school system just because, is unacceptable. Isn’t the US a democracy, what happened to the right of its people to elect to office whom they choose?

Resources: dialogic.blogspot.com, "The Rachel Maddow Show"