No Easy Answers
Shortly after slipping into the driver's seat of the Motor City's schools last spring, Detroit's newly created school board came close to getting run off the road. Convened for their first public meeting, the board's seven members at first found it impossible to proceed amid the shouts of protesters opposed to the takeover law that had led to their appointment two weeks earlier. It was only after Chairman Freman Hendrix ordered police to "have the hecklers removed—now," that things quieted down and the board was able to get on with its business.
Since then, the meetings have gotten calmer. Yet the anger expressed during that tumultuous first meeting has not gone away. At its root are questions that have divided Detroit—and communities across the nation—throughout the course of this century: Who should be in charge of the public schools, and how should they be run?
The answers the city has settled on during the past 100 years have often mirrored broader trends in how Americans, especially those who live in cities, have chosen to organize...
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