Detroit Schools Superintendent Wants A Jail Not a School In Detroit
Now this is very interesting and should be very telling on the inner thinking of Detroit Public Community Schools District (DPCSD) and their Superintendent Nikolai Vitti. They actually were attempting to block the sale of a school building (former Anna Joyce Elementary building) that the do not currently own to a non-traditional public charter school named Detroit Prep, according to a report from the Heritage Foundation.
What does that tell you?
It tells me that Mr. Vitti and the board are very afraid of competition. A competition that might actually improve the educational lives and eventually the success of Detroit children in their future.
The other interesting and telling part of this saga is told in an article by the Detroit Free Press. That is the fact that some Detroit Public Community Schools District (DPCSD) board members and their Superintendent Nikolai Vitti were willing and advocated to back the sale of another piece of school property, a vacant lot that would have then been part of the Wayne County jail project.
What does that tell you?
Is it fair to say that Mr. Vitti might have wanted to contribute to the school to prison pipeline?
Luckily enough of the DPCSD school board voted against the sale and it did not go through.
One of those Board members who voted against the sale was LaMar Lemmons, and he was quoted in the Free Press article stating:
The community in that area ... objects to a corrections facility being placed there
Good for you Mr. Lemmons, I think it would have been a terrible impression for the DPCSD to give to the community. Part of the terrible impression is that the board and Mr. Vitti fights against selling a piece of property to a competing school but not a jail.
What would Mr. Vitti say if someone who was an actual reporter and did not just play one, and had access to Mr. Vitti, would have asked him why he supports a jail purchasing school property but not another school, how does that help the community and most of all the children of Detroit?