The Education Achievement System Explained

Plan Aims To Help Detroit's Low-Performing Schools

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Announces Reform For District

DETROIT, Mich. -- A new school system is being formed to oversee the Detroit Public Schools' lowest-performing institutions as part of a broader effort to improve education in the state, Gov. Rick Snyder announced Monday.

The public-private partnership involves the struggling Detroit district as well as Eastern Michigan University, the Republican governor said. He said the schools would have a year to prepare and the authority would oversee them starting in the 2012-2013 school year.

View: Education Achievement System Plan Details 
Read: F.A.Q's About Education Achievement System

Snyder says the pilot program, called the Education Achievement System, could be expanded later statewide. Snyder made the announcement along with Roy Roberts, the emergency manager of the Detroit school district whom he appointed earlier this year.

"We do have too many failing schools in our state," Snyder told reporters at a news conference in Detroit.

Roberts, who will remain in his post in Detroit, will lead the effort, serving as chairman of the Executive Committee of the new school system for 2011-2012.

Snyder also said a program modeled after the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program would be set up to help Detroit students attend college. The Kalamazoo program guarantees college scholarships to state universities and community colleges.

The Detroit scholarship program initially would help fund two years of college, and hopefully would be expanded to four years, he said. That effort would be funded by foundations, businesses and philanthropic organizations, and fundraising is under way.

Roberts is working to trim the district's $327 million budget deficit and improve education. The district's graduation rate lags behind the national average, and enrollment has dropped from 104,000 in 2007 to 74,000 this year and is projected to bottom out at 56,000.