School Board Adopts Resolution To Ditch Mayoral Control Of Detroit Schools

Photo courtesy of Frank and Karen Hammer on Flickr
Photo courtesy of Frank and Karen Hammer on Flickr

The struggle for control of Detroit schools continues as the state attempts to dissolve the existing district and saddle taxpayers with enormous debt and no schools, leaving only the option of charter schools to the residents of the city. Recent discussions regarding the Detroit Public Schools have been strongly leaning toward turning the DPS over to mayoral control. Part of this proposed plan includes splitting the district into two separate and distinct districts.


One district would start from scratch with no debt and an appointed school board, under the immediate direction of Detroit Mayor Michael Duggan. This district would be in control of all educational aspects of the district including building and school management, curriculum, and control of all state and federal student funding received by the district based on student enrollment numbers. The stated goal is to turn control of all schools over to Charter School management companies.

The second district would consist of the existing, duly elected school board, under the direction of the assigned Emergency Manager, Darnell Earley. This district would have no educational duties, no buildings, no control over anything even remotely related to educating our students, but would maintain the entirety of the debt associated with the current district with no new incoming revenue. The proposal assigns bond monies to be collected through taxes to the non-educational district, for the sole purpose of paying down the accrued debt of the current district.

The problems within DPS have been long in the making. They started back in 1999. The district was flush. They had a surplus in the bank and 169,000 students. Enter then Governor John Engler and Public Act 10 of 1999. PA 10 authorized Governor Engler to appoint 6 of the 7 members of the Detroit School Board.

The appointed members of the school board proceeded to annihilate the $114 million surplus, not stopping until the district was under a $300 million deficit. Purchases were made all willy-nilly, leases and contracts were signed committing future monies to further indebtedness, and horrible decisions were made that precipitated the near financial collapse and the hemorrhage of students transferring out of this once rich and bountiful district.

DPS was placed under state receivership from 1999 until 2005 under PA 10, which allowed for appointment of a school reform board by mayor in certain school districts; provide for and provide for chief executive officer of school district.” The district was returned to local control under an elected school board in 2005. When the elected school board was unable to turn the district around with no resources and constant opposition from the state, they were turned over to Emergency Management in 2009 in accordance with PA 72 of 1990.

All the woes of the Detroit schools have been blamed on the elected school board, even though they have not been permitted to perform the jobs they were elected to perform. Under PA 72, and later PA 4 of 2011, then finally under PA 436 of 2012, an Emergency Manager has conducted business for the Detroit schools and nullified all rulings and attempted actions by the elected school board. Michigan legislators have consistently passed laws that are detrimental to all public schools in the state, but incrementally worse for Detroit schools.

The record of appointed Emergency Managers is less than stellar. They have done nothing to decrease the debt, but have certainly exacerbated it. They have closed buildings, turned others over to Charter school management companies, attempted to manipulate official school student counts, and allowed many more buildings to fall into the hands of pillaging vandals and metal scrappers until they were nothing more than gutted ruins. They have mismanaged funds from bonds that will require citizens to be paying for school bonds until well beyond 2040 with little to nothing to show for it.

The elected school board has never stopped trying to right the wrongs done to the students of Detroit schools. They have consistently attempted to enact policy changes and improvements that would benefit students, only to be stopped by the currently appointed Emergency Manager.

Their most recent attempt to stop the travesty being perpetrated on students was to pass a resolution against the splitting of the district into two separate entities – one for students with no elected representation except Mayor Duggan (who has a track record of being not good for schools) and one for the accumulated debt. This financial accounting trick will certainly make Detroit schools appear more financially stable, but does nothing to alleviate the problem. It only serves to give the same people that depleted the original surplus a clean slate to amass even more debt.

The resolution, as passed, appears below and clearly outlines the reasoning behind their passage of this resolution. Unfortunately, because the Emergency Manager has declared the elected school board persona non grata, the resolution will carry no weight in stopping the rolling freight train that seems determined to dismantle and privatize all Detroit schools.

“Resolution to Oppose and Reject any form of Mayoral Control of the Detroit Public School District

Whereas, under PA 10 of 1999 the Mayor of the City of Detroit was authorized by Governor Engler to appoint 6 of the 7 Board members to the Detroit Public School District, and;

Whereas, it was this State control and mayoral formation which squandered the $114 million dollar surplus and the drove the district into a $300 million dollar deficit, and;

Whereas it was under the aforementioned Mayoral formation and State control that DPS was encumbered with myriad unjustifiable, outlandish, and irresponsible purchases, leases, obligations and contracts that precipitated the near financial collapse and pending demise of the Detroit Public School District, and;

Whereas, it was under Mayoral control that today’s Mayor, Mr. Michael Duggan, on loan from the Wayne County Executive’s Office, and a resident of Livonia, was appointed by Governor John Engler and Mayor Archer to manage, and did so POORLY manage the $90 million dollar Detroit Taxpayer funded,
School Building Repair & Rehabilitation Project of 1999 that after three months the money was gone and the district had to undertake a costly remediation of the work performed under Mr. Duggan, and;

Whereas, in 2004 the electors of the City of Detroit did reject Mayoral control by a 2 to 1 vote,
and demand an elected school board form of Governance, and;

Whereas, today’s Mayor also served as Treasurer of the EAA, which has proved to be financially and academically catastrophic to the students, citizens and taxpayers of the City of Detroit, and;

THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED, and conveyed to all interested and influential parties that we, the Duly Elected Detroit Board of Education,
do hereby oppose and reject Mayoral Control of the Detroit Public School District”


For additional information on Detroit Public Schools, including the Title IV complaint filed with the assistance of Go Left America, please visit their Facebook page. Read about the elected School Board’s battle to fight the injustice of Emergency Manager control here.

 

 

Featured image courtesy of Frank & Karen Hammer on Flickr.