Detroit, the poster child for a troubled American city, has a central problem among many and that is its school system. But few citizens will run for the school board, and barely 20 percent of Detroiter's showed up for the primary Aug. 2. That's a civic disgrace that could kill Detroit . WSU's Kurt Metzger, the area's leading demographer, says that as it is, the only new residents moving into Detroit are "the newly wed and the almost dead."