The Shock Doctrine- Alive and Well in Michigan
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The Shock Doctrine- Alive and Well in Michigan
Symptomatic of what is occurring in education across the nation, Detroit Public Schools are deep in debt.
Detroit, though, is somewhat unique in that they have in place an autocratic and unilateral leader appointed by the Governor of Michigan. They have an Emergency Manager, a person appointed at the governor’s behest to alleviate a financial situation that has been deemed by such governor to be an “emergency.”
In Detroit Public Schools, this has led to the marginalization of a perfectly capable and democratically elected school board. It has promoted the market fundamentalists’ premier value of economic efficiency over democracy, and it has done so at the expense of the economic health of the district, the academics of the students affected, and the community’s agency as expressed via the accountability of a democratically elected school board. It is no small thing to again point out the irony of the fact that Emergency Management has been installed at the expense of the district’s financial viability. (For more on this sordid history, please read Bill Wylie-Kellerman’s excellent account.)So what is the governor going to do now with this mess he has exacerbated?According to The Detroit News, “Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration is exploring ways to link a change in governance of public education in Detroit with ‘financial relief’ for the debt-ridden and cash-strapped Detroit Public Schools.”
Hmm..little mention of here of the structural conditions that led to such a situation.
No mention of the damning, incomplete, and false narrative of “failing schools.”
Although there are some hints if you read between the lines.
Since DPS is managed by its fourth emergency manager in six years, the issue of giving the district some financial breathing room looms large as the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren tries to craft a new school reform plan for Snyder to pursue in the Legislature.
See, it seems that there is a glimmer of understanding that an Emergency Manager- the fourth in six years- has simply The Shock Doctrine- Alive and Well in Michigan | EduBloggers:
