LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Many of the schools on Michigan’s newest bottom 5 percent list are in Detroit and will not be closed by the state until 2019 at the earliest because of how the laws enacting a financial bailout of the district were written.
Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration on Thursday made public the lowest-performing schools across the state.
Five schools on the list are in Benton Harbor. They are: Benton Harbor High School, the Dream Academy, the International Academy at Hull, the STEAM Academy at MLK and Benton Harbor Charter School Academy.
Benton Harbor High School has been on the list since 2010.
The Montessori Academy at Henry C. Morton is among the schools already ordered closed since last year’s state exams.
A decision on which, if any, of the schools on the list just released that could be forced to shut down is due by the end of the year.
Fifty-eight of the 116 open schools are in Detroit’s district or will be folded back into the district when a state-created turnaround entity dissolves next year.
A Snyder spokeswoman says the state will not force the closure of Detroit schools for at least three years because of the legislation that created a new debt-free district.
