Why Michigan Schools Are Failing: Land Banks

Public Private Partnerships profiting
from failing schools land bank schemes

Here is how it works:

You set up a fake corporation called a land bank.

You kill the tax base by making them poor and forcing migration.

You run a tax foreclosures scheme.

You shutter schools because there are not enough students.

You fraudulently snatch the properties and put them in land banks.

You hand properties out to your campaign contributors to support you in getting charter schools set up for them.

Then they put the money in their pockets and fund your campaigns.

The students are poorer, perform worse in school, which opens the doors to set up more Public Private Partnership programs to help children of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) to learn, which they typically do not, because they are poor.

Frustrated parents migrate, if they can, to better schools and better quality of living.

More properties go to the land banks.

You sell to foreign investors for a substantial profit.

And that ends the tale of why more Michigan charter schools are failing.

More Michigan schools are failing: Most are charters

Sixteen charter schools are on a new list of schools and districts that are subject to agreements with the state to turn around failing performance.

The Michigan Department of Education released the list Friday of 21 school districts that officials will begin having discussions with — based on poor performance on the state's standardized exam. Charter schools are considered school districts in Michigan.

State law gives the MDE the option of closing failing schools. However, State Superintendent Brian Whiston's approach has instead involved entering into partnership agreements with school districts that have failing schools.

Those agreements, the first of which were implemented last year, cover steps the schools will take to improve academic achievement. If schools don't meet goals, the state has the option to intervene. Closure could then be back on the table.

Previously, the state had entered into partnership agreements with 16 school districts and charter schools. Two of those districts — the Detroit Public Schools Community District and the River Rouge School District — have more schools on Friday's list.

“It’s been encouraging to watch districts making progress,” Whiston said in a news release. “What we’ve seen in the first partnership districts exhibits the positive opportunity to work together under the leadership of the local superintendent and the local board of education toward improving student achievement and outcomes.”

These are the new schools and districts and each one is located in a land bank locality:

• Baldwin Community Schools
• Detroit Delta Prep Academy for Social Justice, Detroit charter school
• Detroit Leadership Academy, Detroit charter school
• Detroit Public Safety Academy, Detroit charter school
• Ecorse Public Schools
• El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy, Lansing charter school
• Flint Community Schools
• Frederick Douglass International Academy, Oak Park charter school
• GEE Edmonson Academy, Detroit charter school
• Genesee STEM Academy, Flint charter school
• Grand Rapids Public Schools
• Great Lakes Academy, Pontiac charter school
• Joy Preparatory Academy, Detroit charter school
• Insight School of Michigan, Lansing charter school
• Macomb Montessori Academy, Warren charter school
• Muskegon Public Schools
• Pathways Academy, Detroit charter school
• Saginaw Preparatory Academy, Saginaw charter school 
• Sarah J. Webber Media Arts Academy, Pontiac charter school
• Southwest Detroit Community School, Detroit charter school
• William C. Abney Academy Elementary, Grand Rapids charter school

The charters and districts will have 90 days to enter into a partnership agreement with the state. 

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