Riley: DPS crisis is Snyder's problem, too
Rochelle Riley,
Detroit Free Press Columnist 11:09 p.m. EST January 31, 2016
DPS debtBuy Photo
Detroit Public School teachers, students, parents and other supporters of the
teacher sick-outs protest in front of Cobo Center on Jan. 20.(Photo: Regina
H. Boone, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
The Detroit Public Schools district isn't months away from bankruptcy, as its
state-appointed emergency manager has warned.
It is weeks away.
A DPS bankruptcy would cost state taxpayers more than $1.5 billion, a fact that
has intensified negotiations on a Senate bill that offers a way to manage
the district's bills. That bill submitted by state Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart,
would split DPS into a school district and a financial entity tasked solely
with paying down the debt. But the bill didn't address how the debt would be
paid and did not include an Detroit Education Commission because charter school
advocates do not want it.
A looming bankruptcy also prompted Gov. Rick Snyder's staff to ask retired
bankruptcy Judge Stephen Rhodes, who guided Detroit through bankruptcy, to meet
with Republican and Democratic senators to help dissuade them from considering
that as an option.
“The purpose of the meeting was more for me to talk with them about my opinion
that bankruptcy is not a good option for DPS,” Rhodes said after last week’s
session with Senate Democrats. “It comes down to a couple of very simple facts …
The state guaranteed 90% of the school district's $515-million debt, Rhodes
said. "So only about $40 to $50 million is debt that can possibly or reasonably
be dealt with in a bankruptcy case.”
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DETROIT FREE PRESS
Teachers union sues DPS, asks judge to boot EM
The bankruptcy sessions come as calls mount for the governor to fire DPS
emergency manager Darnell Earley, who, as emergency manager in Flint in 2014,
oversaw
switching Flint's water supply from the Huron River to the Flint River before
taking the Detroit job.
“Darnell Earley presided over the biggest public health crisis in the history
of Michigan,” Rep. Sheldon Neeley, D-Flint, said Friday on behalf of the
Michigan
Legislative Black Caucus. “And now he’s brought that same mismanagement and
callous attitude to the Detroit Public Schools.”
Darnell EarleyBuy Photo
Darnell Earley (Photo: Detroit Free Press)
That demand followed a lawsuit seeking Earley's dismissal filed by teachers who
staged sick-outs to protest deplorable conditions in the schools.
But the demands from legislators and community leaders as well as Mayor Mike
Duggan and the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren go farther.
They have called for Snyder to return control of the local schools to local
leaders.
They also are unanimous — including the governor — in their demand for a
Detroit Education Commission to oversee the landscape of education in Detroit,
commit to a common enrollment process to make it easier for parents to select
schools and assure that schools exist where students are. Currently, there
are no restrictions on where charter schools locate and no requirement that
they meet the same standards as schools in DPS.
At the behest of the charter lobby, Hansen omitted the commission from his
bill. So the negotiations, which have been at a standstill, resume.
“We’re still stuck on one major issue, the DEC (Detroit Education Commission),”
one southeast Michigan legislator said. “The mayor is calling for it. The
Coalition (For the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren) is calling for it. The
governor is calling for it. But two very singularly focused groups are blocking
the conversation: J.C. Huizenga, founder of National Heritage Academies,
Michigan’s largest charter school operation, and Bob Thompson, who owns a number
of charter schools in the city.
Parts of Detroit have thousands of students without an adequate number of
schools, the legislator said, while the Woodward Corridor has 1,200 students and
11 schools.
The commission is more than a sticking point; it's a deal-breaker for many
legislators.
The mounting pressure puts Snyder between a rock and a hard place. Children in
two cities are counting on him for fixes at a time that federal and state
laws have tied in hands. For instance, he asked the federal government for an
emergency of expansion of WIC (Women, Infants & Children) coverage to improve
nutrition for children affected by the water debacle in Flint. The feds
declined, saying Congress would have to change current law to allow it.
Meanwhile, children in Flint and Detroit are waiting, their lives and prospects
damaged with each passing day.
Perhaps what the governor needs is to hire some experts in education and
finance, in engineering and infrastructure, to come in and take over on both
issues.
His team in Lansing has shown that he cannot count on them. And his emergency
manager in Detroit has failed him, twice.
Rather than hire PR professionals, as he did to handle the Flint crisis, the
governor might consider hiring someone to temporarily run the Detroit school
district and really balance the budget — something the EMs have been unable to
do.
The governor and his staff are late to both of these crises. After hearing that
he didn't know about the problems in Flint until they were more than a year
old, I have to ask: Did anyone on his staff tell him that the teachers shut
down 88 of 97 schools last week?
"The future of our children and our city is at stake," Rep. Brian Banks,
D-Detroit, wrote to the governor in an open letter released Friday. "We cannot
afford to make any more missteps when it comes to our schools and educating our
students. If our students don’t succeed, then our city won’t either."
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Source:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/rochelle-riley/2016/01/31/riley-dps-crisis-snyders-problem-too/79579498/
