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Yet another charter school is closing in Detroit because of financial problems, forcing parents to find a new school for their children.
Southwest Detroit Community School announced it was closing during an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon, Chalkbeat Detroit reports.
Since opening six years ago, the school has struggled with finances, poor academic performance, and retaining teachers and principals.
Southwest Detroit Community School has pledged to stay open until the end of the school year, as well as to help find a new school for its 347 students.
Numerous charter schools have opened in Detroit in the past few years. Many of them hire uncertified teachers and act more like businesses than schools.
In September 2018, the Detroit Delta Preparatory Academy for Social Justice, a charter school, closed less than a month into the school year.
In August 2016, a charter school on Detroit’s west side, University YES Academy, closed its high school just two weeks before the first day of class. The academy came under fire in 2015 for taking extraordinary measures to prevent teachers from unionizing.
A Detroit Free Press investigation found that taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $1 billion a year to fund charter schools.
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