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New education budget threatens dozens of low-performing Detroit schools with closure — again
By Koby Levin, www.chalkbeat.com
Dozens of struggling Detroit schools could face closure once again after Gov. Rick Snyder signed an education budget on Thursday that seeks to stiffen consequences for low-scoring schools.
The budget requires the state’s lowest-performing schools to change their “partnership agreements” with the state, amending the contracts to include the possibility of closure if their test scores don’t meet agreed-upon targets.
In signing the budget, Snyder highlighted an increase of $120 to $240 in spending per student in K-12 schools.
The budget does not reduce spending on “shared time” programs, as Snyder hoped. Funding for the programs, which allow private school students to take free classes from public school teachers, increased sharply in recent years, but will remain flat in 2018.
It is the latest salvo in the debate over the future of Michigan’s lowest performing schools, Snyder last year initially pursued an effort to close 38 Michigan schools whose test scores had been among the bottom five percent statewide for three years in a row, but his plan was met with strong public oppositionand was eventually shelved.
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