Schools are unsafe.
Children are learning much less than they should - and much less than they could. But as the series demonstrated, the district's problems don't stem from a lack of financial resources. The News identified schools that work in Detroit. They succeed because of effective administrative leadership, often through the efforts of a strong principal who is able to promote clear goals for his or her school, including high expectations for pupils' achievement and an emphasis on basic-skills learning. Piecemeal reform, attempting to convert the existing system school by school, classroom by classroom, has been tried during the past two decades to no avail.