General Motors is collaborating with the United Way, Detroit Public Schools, charter schools and other organizations to explore how best the automaker can contribute to improving K-12 education in Detroit, Mark Reuss, president of General Motors North America, said today.
“We are exploring an idea to take five Detroit schools and essentially divide each school into four academies to train our children to have marketable skills in the city of Detroit,” Reuss during a speech during the 11th Annual Rainbow Push Global Automotive Summit at the Motor City Casino in Detroit.
Reuss did not respond to repeated inquiries to provide details of the program because he said GM is still studying it. But he said he hopes to create the type of educational model that can be replicated around the country. To get his point across, Reuss regaled the audience with a poignant story about a girl he met who told him nobody cared about her performance in school.
“I don’t know how you look into a child like that’s eyes and walk away,” Reuss said. “We will not walk away. We will break the back of this cycle. We will do it one child at a time and we will do it as GM recovers.” –terry shropshire
