On a mission to save a sinking school district
March 2, 2009
Today Robert Bobb takes the helm of what could charitably be called public education's Titanic -- the Detroit Public Schools.
Bobb arrives as the new fiscal manager not by choice, but as the latest shameful consequence of a systemic pattern of inept management and broken fiscal processes. Add to those problems a $140-million deficit for fiscal year 2008 and a lingering breakdown in the delivery of services, encompassing everything from basics like toilet paper to essentials such as access to mandated tutoring services.
No doubt, Bobb's training through the Eli Broad Foundation's Urban Schools Superintendent Academy will serve him well in prioritizing DPS's fiscal challenges. He has studied the success of big-city turnarounds and knows what must be done. Bobb's national connections could also position DPS to go after a portion of President Barack Obama's Race to the Top Fund, $5 billion that will be divided among school districts employing innovative turnaround ideas. Bobb should also take quick advantage of incoming U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's growing interest in Detroit.
A teensy sign of progress surfaced last week with the news that DPS is selling 27 previously closed schools, properties that had been languishing on the district's books and adding to Detroit's abandoned eyesores.
If Bobb can apply urgency and transparency to other lingering wasteful practices, he'll be light years ahead of any DPS leader since David Adamany, the former Wayne State University president who ran the district for a year during Gov. John Engler's state-imposed takeover.
Like Adamany, Bobb will need a political hide thick as an elephant's and a focus as unrelenting as a laser's. Call it battle armor for the inevitable dueling he'll face with some members of DPS's elected board of education, even as their authority is diminished by his appointment.
The culture of low educational expectations and excuse-making runs too deep with DPS for anyone to assume the board will welcome Bobb's reign. Thankfully, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has given Bobb a broom big enough to sweep out the waste and to begin restructuring DPS as a district finally on course for wondrous change.
Calloway must back up allegations
March 2, 2009
How surprising that Connie Calloway, the usually calm and demure former Detroit Public Schools superintendent, is suddenly so loquacious about the waste and corruption she saw while at the helm of the state's largest school district.
During a hearing on her dismissal, Calloway lobbed some pretty explosive -- and potentially criminal -- accusations against her former employers, the Detroit Board of Education.
Calloway insinuated, among other charges, that members of the board held closed-door meetings to determine vendor contract awards and strategically moved money between funds in order to profit personally.
Board members predictably bristled at the accusations. And they certainly should without seeing proof. Funny, Calloway didn't offer any during her diatribe.
But if Calloway has any evidence to back up what she's saying, she has an obligation to produce it -- and, just as important, to explain why she waited so long to come forward. A spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office told the Detroit Free Press it has not received documentation of any alleged criminal conduct.
During her short 18-month tenure, Calloway billed herself as a defender of accountability.
Now, she must be accountable for the questionable decision to open this sordid can of worms the way she did, and perhaps for sitting silent while others allegedly committed transgressions against the city's children.
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