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Granholm plan for smaller schools deserves support

April 3, 2008

The state Senate's Republican majority is being both predictable and wrong in dismissing Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to put a dent in Michigan's dropout rates by starting smaller high schools in failing districts.

The GOP's contention that Michigan doesn't have the purse to pay for every well-meaning idea is essentially true. But nor can Michigan afford to pass up a promising investment in its future, a plan that offers more remedy than anyone has proposed to date for the costly problem of school dropouts.

The Senate GOP's reluctance looks all the more irresponsible in light of data out this week showing Michigan's largest school district is essentially an incubator for dropouts.

America's Promise Alliance, a group founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, declared Detroit the national leader in this sadly telling statistic. The graduation rate for Detroit Public Schools has plummeted to just 24.9%, according to their report. To let such a miserable statistic grow any worse when something can be done is unconscionable.

The Granholm plan calls for granting zero-interest loans to help 27 districts build new and smaller high schools of no more than 500 students. The loans would target districts with high dropout rates and patterns of low test scores. Each could borrow up to $15 million from a $180-million pool. Districts would have five years to begin repaying the loans, either through millages or from their general funds.

An abundance of data shows why large traditional and impersonal high schools don't work in reaching disinterested learners, the highest dropout risks. How many young people is Michigan going to sacrifice before it gets the courage to change, as so many other states have done, to offer smaller schools as options?

There is still time for the Legislature to revive this measure and let Michigan schools try something different before even more students walk away from them and into a very limited future.