Detroit Public Schools To Be Corporatized (Privatizing the town of Benton Harbor)

The push toward the corporatization of the state of Michigan picked up steam as approximately a dozen teachers, teen mothers and their children were arrested in Detroit after staging a peaceful sit-in protest at the Catherine Ferguson Academy.

The sit-in was organized to protest Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb's announcement that he was closing the highly successful and unique school for pregnant and parenting teens. The school provides pre-natal and parenting classes and gives high school student mothers the opportunity to finish their high school degrees by providing on-site child care and other support services.

Catherine Ferguson Academy is just one of the eight schools targeted for closure by the Bobb, who also announced plans to sell up to 45 state schools to charter companies as well.

Despite efforts by parents, students and faculty to meet with Bobb, their pleas were ignored.

And like the move to shut down and privatize the town of Benton Harbor, it is hard to miss the underlying racial hostility and animus in such a move. It would be one thing if the school were failing--it's not. In fact the school boasts a 90% graduation rate and 100% college and higher education acceptance upon graduation.

Instead, it shows that what Michigan Republicans, and indeed Republicans nationwide have decided is that the public is no longer worthy of public funds, let alone support.