Gregory Kane: "More Money Will Not Fix Detroit's Ailing Schools"

Asserts the conservative Republican columnist, in response to a documentary that was recently shown on the Black Entertainment Television channel: "Instead of the dumbed-down fare most networks offer, 'Heart of the City' asked serious questions about the Detroit public school system, where less than 30 percent of high-school students graduate on time; where the graduation rate for black males is less than 20 percent; where test scores are among the lowest in the country; where teachers have to buy supplies from Office Depot; where students have to share textbooks; and where the system is so mismanaged that it is $300 million in debt. Narrated by former University of Michigan and National Basketball Association star Chris Webber -- who's a native of Detroit -- the documentary asked all the right questions but one: With the millions of federal tax dollars that must have been poured into Detroit public schools, why do teachers have to buy supplies and why do students have to share textbooks? What has been done with all that federal money? (Michigan residents must also be wondering what happened to the state tax money that went to the school system, too.) The documentary provided part of the answer, referring to 'years of financial mismanagement and corruption' that plagued the Detroit public school system. It takes quite a bit of mismanagement to run up $300 million in debt, and I'm sure many have taken note that the mismanagement occurred on the watch of Democratic elected officials who've been running Detroit into the ground for decades."

He continues his commentary: "No amount of money can help schools when demagogues lead a city. Money can't change mind-sets or attitudes. Money can't help students who buy into the message of some rap songs, as Douglas Brooks, the valedictorian at Detroit's Henry Ford High School this year and a freshman at Howard University, said in the documentary. 'The rap song, it's telling you to sell the drugs,' Brooks said. 'It's telling you to look cool. [That selling drugs] makes you popular.' One of the things viewers learn from 'Heart of the City' is that Henry Ford High School had 300 gang members at one time. No student can learn in such an environment. And no amount of tax money will change it, either."