Senate leader EAA set to be eliminated Jonathan Oosting, The Detroit News
Lansing Gov. Rick Snyder's controversial Education Achievement Authority will
come to an end as legislators consider a $715 million plan to rescue the
Detroit Public Schools, according to Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof. "It's
gone. We're not going to do the EAA again," Meekhof told The Detroit News on
Wednesday, a day before his Government Operations Committee was to begin a
public debate on the Detroit schools legislation. Meekhof, R-West Olive, said
moving away from the EAA is one of several "accommodations" that Republicans
will make in order to help get Democrats on board with the larger plan. "We
think with the School Reform Office and financial review that we'll be able
to make the improvements that we need," he said of the 15 low-performing
Detroit schools that have been run by the EAA since 2011. Snyder told The
Detroit
News Editorial Board last year that he was "open" to disbanding the EAA as part
of a deal with the Legislature on Detroit schools. But spokesman Dave Murray
said Wednesday he could not confirm Meekhof's comments regarding the potential
end of the EAA. "There are continuing discussions about the role of the
EAA in Detroit Public Schools education," Murray said. Detroit schools
legislation introduced last month would split the district in two. A new
debt-free
Detroit Community School District would focus on educating roughly 48,000
students, while the old district would continue to exist as a vehicle to pay
down existing debt, much of which the state is liable for. The bills do not
directly address the EAA, formed in 2011 to run 15 of the city's
lowest-performing
schools, but they do give a larger role to the School Reform Office, which the
Republican governor moved under his own budget department last March.
Specifically,
the legislation says the reform office could not close a Detroit school within
two years of transfer to the new district but could impose another "redesign
plan" on low-achieving schools. Snyder announced this week that, for the first
time, the School Reform Office would use existing authority to appoint a
new chief executive officer to run four struggling schools in Eastpointe.
Debate over the Detroit schools package will begin Thursday amid a backdrop of
mounting district debt, teacher sickouts that have highlighted poor building
conditions and this week's announcement that embattled Emergency Manager Darnell
Earley will leave by month's end. Duggan, State Superintendent Brian Whiston
and School Reform Officer Natasha Henderson are among those expected to testify
on Thursday, and Meekhof plans to hold additional hearings over the next three
or four weeks. "I think you'll see the bills are very reasonable, because
several things that the Democrats have asked for, we've included," Meekhof
said. "They don't close any schools, they don't punish any teachers, the
emergency
manager's gone and it doesn't affect collective bargaining. But Democrats in
the House and Senate have already spoken out against the bills, as introduced.
The minority party, which includes Detroit legislators, wants to see a faster
return to local control than initially proposed, and members want charter
school oversight to be part of the final product. "If they want to get
something done in a bipartisan way, there's a few things we've been consistently
talking about, and I think if those kinds of things are in the bill, and
there's some long-term sustainability, I think there's a very good chance we
would
support it," said Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint. "Until that
happens though, they've got some work to do. Under the bills, Detroit voters
would elect a new school board in November, but initial control would rest with
an interim board appointed by the governor and mayor. Those members would
help select a superintendent and could appoint an advisory board to assess
academics and operations in the district. The legislation does not include
Snyder's
earlier proposal to create a Detroit Education Commission with power to open
and close any public school operated by DPS or independent charter schools.
Republicans supportive of charter schools and the charter school lobby
aggressively fought against the new commission. Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, lead
sponsor on the Detroit schools legislation called the bills "a good
compromise," but he anticipates additional talks about creation of a "master
plan"
to identify where school buildings are needed in the city. "I don't know if
it's going to be possible to satisfy everybody, but I think that we put in
a lot of the things from all sides of this," he said. "We're having discussions
from all sides of it to make sure we can try to address as many of the
issues as we can. The bills introduced so far include an initial appropriation
of $250,000 to help establish the new Detroit Community School District,
but they do not spell out additional funding that would naturally come out of
the School Aid Fund. Snyder has said the plan could cost the state roughly
$715 million over 10 years. Detroit Public Schools' general fund deficit grew
from $169.5 million in 2014 to $215.9 million by the end of 2015, according
to budget documents, and the deficit is expected to grow to $312 million by the
end of June. As The Detroit News reported in January, the districts debt
payments were expected to balloon this month, and the district could run out of
cash by April. All told, Detroit schools has $3.5 billion in combined operating
and capital liabilities, according a recent report from the non-partisan
Citizens Research Council of Michigan. That includes $1.9 billion in employee
legacy costs and cash flow borrowing, along with nearly $1.7 billion in
outstanding bonds and state loans. It's a "decades-long crisis" that the state
must address, Snyder said last month in his State of The State Address. "Taking
prompt legislative action is needed to minimize the fiscal impact on both
Detroit and the rest of Michigan," the governor said. "The time to act is now:
avoid court intervention that could cost all of us much more and can be
much more detrimental. joosting@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx twitter.com/jonathanoosting
