Detroit to close 23 schools

The current recession started in Dec. 2007 according to the National Bureau of Economics. Since then, Autotown, USA, has been one of the hardest hit cities in the country.

This fall, the Detroit Public School system will close 23 schools and lay-off 600 teachers, this amounts to 11.3 percent of all DPS teachers. The decision will force 7,500 students to transfer schools. According to the Detroit News, the move was because of "plummeting enrollment and mounting deficit." The DPS system was anticipating a $306 million deficit before the closings.

According to Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, (I can't help but wonder is he goes by Bob Bobb) the closings will save $8.8 million annually starting in the fall of 2010.

In the last 10 years, DPS enrollment has gone from 173,848 to 95,000 today. In that same time period, 70 buildings have been closed, and another 30 could be closed in 2010. Bobb has asked state Superintendent Mike Flanagan for $200 million of the state's $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds to help pay the district's deficit and upgrade the school's still open.

I feel bad for the students in Detroit. When a kid spends 35 hours a week at a school, more if they are involved in clubs or sports, they unavoidable develop alot of strong emotions about those hallways. Granted, for a lot of teenagers, high school sucks ass and a lot of those emotions are contempt and anger, but nobody likes being forced to switch schools.

Most of the teachers will be given severance packages and if they look hard enough they will find jobs in other cities. Their lives will be disrupted and they might have to move, it might take them a long time to find another job, but I still think the kids have it harder.