Cityscape

Six Years After the State Takeover of Detroit Schools, Things Aren't So Good

February 26, 2015, 6:00 AM


Robert Bobb

Six years after the state takeover of the Detroit Public School System, things aren't all that good.

Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter for Michigan Democracy Watch Blog, run by the Michigan American Civil Liberties Union,reports that after six years and four state-appointed managers, Detroit Public Schools’ debt has grown even deeper.

Guyette also writes:

The state takeover — at least the most recent iteration of intervention — began in March 2009, when Robert Bobb, a former president of the Washington D.C. Board of Education with much experience as a city administrator, was appointed emergency financial manager of a district then responsible for educating some 95,000 students.

Now, nearly six years later, that number has plummeted by nearly 50 percent, with 48,900 students enrolled in the district, according to the most recent numbers posted online by the district.

The number of schools has fallen dramatically as well, down to 103, with more closures slated. There were 198 DPS schools during the 2007-08 school year, the last full year that an elected board had full responsibility for overseeing the district.

He goes on to write:

Roberts’ promise proved to be false.

A revised deficit elimination plan submitted last year by Jack Martin, the emergency manager who succeeded (Roy) Roberts (and who has recently been replaced by yet another EM), calls for the closure of 24 more schools and other district-owned buildings in the coming years in an attempt to produce a balanced budget and eliminate the accumulated “legacy” deficit.

That tide of red ink — annually amounting to tens of millions of dollars, and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars — isn’t the only legacy DPS is dealing with.

The district’s struggles can be traced to a skein of historic factors, beginning with the city’s long-declining population, a trend that started in the 1950s and continues today.

Another major factor was the approval of 1994’s Proposal A in a statewide referendum that radically changed the way Michigan finances education, shifting from a primary reliance on local property taxes to a “per pupil” foundation grant provided by the state.


Read more:  Michigan Democracy Watch Blog


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