Still Waiting for Democracy: When the State Takes Over From the State
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If you’re paying attention to education matters in the state of Michigan, you know that Michigan’s Governor Snyder has come out with his plan for what is to become of Detroit Public Schools. In a nutshell, it consists of creating two school systems, one that will exist only to contain and deal with existing debt, and the other to run as a debt free portfolio system of common enrollment that will contain what is left of traditional public schools in Detroit, and charter schools.
There are some interesting quirks in this plan. Most interesting to me is that this plan implicitly recognizes that the previous state takeover of DPS was a failure. Governor Snyder’s response to this failure is this plan, which essentially is a state takeover of a failed state takeover. ( Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity?)
As Detroit Data and Democracy points out, the consequences of the state takeover, originally in 1999, from the fairly elected DPS board of education have not been positive:
“…by 2002, the district was well into a cycle of decline from which it has not recovered:
- A positive general fund balance turned negative, inducing austerity measures that impacted programming.
- Cuts interrupted the academic progress the district had been making relative to the rest of the state.
- With worsening academics, parents began to leave the district for charters and suburban schools.
- The resulting enrollment decline led to a worsening financial position for the district, prompting further cuts.
- Further cuts produced a further decline in academics, which led to more enrollment loss.”
Even the controversial Detroit Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren has made It clear that the state of Michigan is responsible for current DPS debt.
“John Rakolta, chief executive of Walbridge and another co-chair of the Still Waiting for Democracy: When the State Takes Over From the State | educarenow:
