Editor's Letter
The Power Of A Promise
E
ducation in its purest form is the essential ingredient
if our region, particularly Detroit, is to possess the
kind of competitive workforce that spurs job cre-
ation. But the Detroit Public Schools are in a crisis state. They
have myriad challenges, from money shortages to deteriorat-
ing infrastructure to a loss of students. Some of these lost stu-
dents go to other districts or charter
schools; others just never finish their
high school education.
The most strategic way to assist
Detroit and the region is by improving
and expanding educational opportuni-
ties for Detroit youth. Unlike the chal-
lenges we face in the Jewish commu-
nity, where many of our kids take their
educations and move to more appeal-
ing urban hotspots, most young adults
who graduate from a Detroit high
school and earn a degree will return
to the region and potentially contribute to its turnaround.
Currently, about 30 percent of the district's 4,000 graduates
each year attend college, the vast majority in Michigan.
Historically, the Jewish community values learning and
knowledge. Given the diaspora's expanse, education, by neces-
sity, remains transportable; we Jews have taken our books and
Torah and created new communities almost everywhere.
When Jewish Detroiters ask how they can personally help
Detroit and the region that the city is bound at the municipal
hip with, the Jewish News cites an investment in some way
in Wayne State University. With the 1998 closing of Sinai
Hospital of Detroit, we see WSU as the Jewish community's
most significant investment in the future of Michigan's largest
city and this region's municipal anchor.
one-page application. The only scholarship requirement
beyond actually graduating is at least four years of continuous
enrollment and city of Detroit residency. That core require-
ment means no student entering Detroit Public Schools after
the ninth grade is eligible; the time for Detroit or suburban
families to act if they are interested in the Promise is now.
There are no limits on income or grades.
A Successful Model
The Kalamazoo Promise, funded anonymously to the tune of
$200 million, is a windfall for Kalamazoo public school stu-
dents. An evaluation of that Promise found that a third of stu-
dents surveyed said they attend school more often and work
harder; 87 percent of students surveyed said they plan to tap
into the Promise to enroll in a community college or univer-
sity. Forty-five state institutions of higher education currently
qualify as Promise-eligible. The dropout rate is down and the
graduation rate is up.
So the Detroit College Promise shouldn't be pooh-poohed
as a pipedream. It has real promise based on such a program's
record in Kalamazoo. Specifically, it is likely to increase
Detroit Public Schools' enrollment and shockingly low gradu-
ation rate of 32 percent (the worst in the nation among large
cities). Students from families who move into the city as a
result of the Promise are certainly likely to graduate.
I applaud Nat Pernick, a Bingham Farms pathologist and
attorney by profession and a humanitarian at heart. A mem-
ber of Bloomfield Township's Temple Beth El, which has roots
that go back to 1850 in Detroit, Pernick is doing what others
only dream of.
"Whether or not we live or work in Detroit today:' he told
the IN, "our lives will improve as Detroit itself becomes more
economically prosperous
He's right, of course.
The economic vitality of the region will never reach its full
potential without a vigorous central city. And one of the keys
to unlocking that vigor, in addition to cleaning up political
corruption, is an educated base of young families. Jews have
a great awareness of education's importance; no
one questions that. But we can do more to help
others develop this appreciation of its value.
A Promising Conduit
The Detroit College Promise, launched this year, could be
another way for the Jewish community to travel onward
and upward from Hastings Street to Seven Mile Road to
Northwestern Highway and other points north
and west. We get it when it comes to education.
Resources to help capable Detroit students attend
college are a natural fit for Jewish Detroit, which
extends far beyond the city borders.
Building A Team
The Detroit College Promise is a promise
Pernick operates PathologyOutlines.com Inc.
of hope and excitement. It seeks to transform
Under contract with the state, he has been a spe-
Detroit into a center of brainpower with a high
cial assistant attorney general for Frank Kelley,
percentage of college graduates. It aims to
Jennifer Granholrn and Mike Cox. His Promise
improve Detroit Public Schools by encouraging
partners include the Detroit Regional Chamber
parents and students to embrace a college track
of Commerce, Detroit-based Communities in
and by motivating nonresidents with college
Schools, which helps prepare students for col-
aspirations for their kids to move into Detroit
lege, and the Northwestern High School Success
and enlist its public schools. The net effect would Dr. Nat Per nick
Project. Among Promise board members are four
be a stronger regional economy triggered in part
other Jews: his sister, Margo Pernick, executive
by deliverance on the Promise.
director of the Detroit-based Jewish Fund; Lora Weingarden,
As an entity, the Promise is a nonprofit organization mod-
a Wayne County assistant prosecutor; David Sabbath, finance
eled after the successful 2-year-old Kalamazoo Promise,
director for the Detroit law firm of Garen Lucow Miller, P.C.;
which has increased public school enrollment in that western and Alvin Levett, retired budget director for Eastern Michigan
Michigan city. Detroit College Promise founder Nat Pernick
University.
vows to provide his first college tuition scholarships to the
Take it from Nat Pernick: "The Jewish community
Detroit Public Schools graduating class of 2010.
knows the importance of parental involvement in making
Pernick's Promise, when fully funded, will be extended to
every Detroit Public Schools graduate who completes a simple Power Of Promise on page A6
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September 25 • 2008
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