Kookie talk

While I was working, this story from yesterday:

Fourth- and eighth-graders in Detroit Public Schools scored the worst in the nation in math, according to national test scores released Tuesday, highlighting the expansive task administrators face in trying to right a district beset by multiple problems.
The Detroit scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress test were the lowest in its 40-year history. Among fourth-graders, 69 percent scored below basic levels, as did 77 percent of eighth-graders.
Those scores on the prestigious test are in the same range as would be expected from children who never attended school and simply guessed at the answers, said Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager of Detroit Public Schools, during a press conference Tuesday.

What's the salary of those hard-working Detroit public school teachers who produce this phenomenal failure? $56,973 a year.

In other news:

The list of schools to be demolished includes Finney High, Chadsey High, Munger Middle and Brietmeyer Elementary, all recently found worthy of historic preservation by the Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Commission, said Julie Long, member of the city's seven-member Detroit Historic District Commission. Long said she had unsuccessfully tried to meet with school officials in recent weeks to urge them to keep many of these schools off the demolition list.

What? WHAT DID THEY SAY? Finney High is worthy of "historic preservation"? This school is around the corner from my house in Detroit. It has to be the UGLIEST school I've ever seen.

Next time I'm over there I'll take a picture. It looks like a prison from the 60's or something. And, it is in horrible shape.