Thats Detroit proper (do not move to downtown Detroit or Flint :) but the cities around Detroit are good, and I don't know much about the schools there but it's worth looking into.
Oakland County has some of the richest cities in the US (a lot of old money) so you can easily find a nice city around Detroit that will be cheap and still very protected.
I've lived in extremely high crime areas before. One study of my neighborhood predicted I had a good chance to be dead within 5-10 years because of crime.
The truth is that unless you're part of the drug trade or other nefarious dealings, you're usually pretty safe. I can't speak for Detroit, but I'm always suspect of these stats.
Oakland County has some of the richest cities in the US (a lot of old money) so you can easily find a nice city around Detroit that will be cheap and still very protected.