Innovation Insights

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Editorial

Bobb has the muscle to fix Detroit schools

Robert Bobb brings some managerial muscle to the Detroit Public Schools, and he's signaling that he'll use it to fix not only the district's finances, but also improve its dismal academic performance. But he's no Samson. To succeed, he needs the broad support of a community that ought to be fed up with the failure of its school system.

That means parents, teachers, community leaders and school board members. Bobb knows what he's doing and can straighten out school district's miserable mess, if that's what Detroit decides it wants him to do. But if the community fights him, if it allows the parasites and special interests to wear him down, Detroit's children aren't likely to get another chance for a quality public school education.

Bobb's motto is "Children First," and it would be useful for everyone in Detroit to adopt it.

What he's doing is absolutely necessary. Bobb is talking about closing as many as 20 schools to deal with a one-year deficit that could reach $200 million.

He's smart enough to know that school closings can't be done mechanically -- they are part of the life of a neighborhood in a city. Yet the district can't sustain the operation of buildings designed for 1,100 students that are occupied by only 300 students.

Bobb has also moved quickly to install systems to allow employees to safely and anonymously report financial wrongdoing, and has quickly suspended one payroll official for possible misbehavior.

He plans to bring in experts to look at the various operations in the huge district, which has revenues of more than $1 billion. Clearly, the administration of these funds has been sloppy. Bobb noted that he discovered in recent days that the district has received a $700,000 grant to aid students in learning to read, but that the money has never been spent.

He has said all kinds of experiments with different learning environments are on the table, including having the district set up its own charter schools, which have more freedom to experiment within the state's curriculum guidelines and don't have more flexibility in staffing assignments.

In one dramatic reversal of current school district policy, Bobb said he would be open to allowing private or charter schools to buy or rent closed Detroit schools, as long as the buildings are properly maintained. The district has been hoarding its boarded-up schools to prevent possible competition from private or charter operators -- thus denying itself much-needed revenue and cheating children of education options.

And all of the operations of the district, Bobb said, would be focused on teaching kids. Labor contracts with private vendors and school employees will all contain requirements that the services provided or the work done will lead to improvements in student achievement.

This should not be an exceptional or controversial set of goals. There are 95,000 students in the system who deserve the best efforts of everyone in the district and the community. Yet the sad history of the Detroit Public Schools is that attempts at reform meet with delay and obstruction.

Parents shouldn't tolerate any move to derail Bobb's reform agenda, and other political players, including school board members, should stand solidly behind him.