Survey Results by Location

"I firmly believe that our kids are getting the best education that they can get anywhere in this county." -KPS Parent

"Often what people really mean when they say the schools are poor, they mean there are poor children in the schools." -KPS Parent

"When I talk with people that I bring in to interview [for a job], the thing I hear repeatedly is, 'Well, I'm probably not going to look for a house in Kalamazoo because of the schools.' Well, who told you that? The businesses and the realtors. And the businesses are just as much to blame as the Realtors" -A Neighbor

Citizens Speak

"The people leaving the central city go out to the suburbs because of the school system. I mean, there was a great white flight." -Historic Preservationist

"The misconception is that Kalamazoo is an unsafe community; the misconception is that the schools are unsafe places to be." -Historic Preservationist

"I think some of our more rural school districts are very strong and others are not, and we need to look at that as well as just our central city schools." -Service Organization Member

"I was concerned because I very recently saw a high dropout rate for the high schools in Kalamazoo. I think that's something that we need to address." -Service Organization Member

"One of the best testimonials for Kalamazoo Public Schools is that these kids learned at a young age to deal with people with different values, and that's what getting along in life is all about. I think the kids are very accepting of one another. Far more than I think the adults are." -Service Organization Member

"Nobody else is going to compare to what Kalamazoo schools could do. A lot of my international people that come in want to be in the city schools because of the academics. They look at the academics. They don't look at the race issue, they don't look at the poverty issues, they look at academics." -A Neighbor

"To ignore the fact that there are teachers getting cussed out, that there are playgrounds where there are unsafe things going on, is sort of criminal." -KPS Parent

"I don't think Kalamazoo Public Schools are that bad. But boy they're sure having a tough time picking up the image. Our kids did very well in the public schools, thank you." -Business Person

"I look at our education system, which I think is great now. Kalamazoo System gets in for a lot of discrediting comments, but I personally think the Kalamazoo Public Schools is a great system." - Developer

"One thing I do feel about the education I got in KPS is that I learned how to interact with people of a variety of backgrounds. That you don't get at a Portage, you don't get at a Mattawan, you don't get in a Richland." -KPS Parent