A Recipe for Killing a School System

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4458
Date Written:  2015-07-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2015
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21222

The level of corruption and willingness to subject children to unproven educational methods is shocking, all the more so given that Detroit has more children living in poverty than any of the country's 50 largest U.S. cities.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The Detroit Public Schools: Public schools have been thinned out so that large swaths of the city have no neighborhood public school. DPS has been under the control of the state government, with only a short break, since 1999. During that first takeover, the building spree initiated by the CEO - appointed by Republican Governor John Engler - turned a positive balance sheet into a $180 million debt.

In 2004, when a sunset clause in the law allowed Detroiters to vote on whether they wanted the "reform" board appointed by the mayor and governor to remain or whether we wanted an elected board, we voted 2-1 for an elected board. The following year we elected one, but within four years Democratic Governor Jennifer Graholm used Public Act 72 to appoint an emergency financial manager, Robert Bobb, to deal with the debt caused by the previous state takeover.