Detroiters can set a new DPS path
Two bills are sitting in conference between the House and Senate in Lansing that would stop a near-criminal insanity: the fact that Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb is not formally in control of the district’s academics.
The bills are stuck, even as legislators gather today, perhaps for the last time this year, apparently because the old saws about Lansing’s interference in Detroit business have been raised. Legislators have reportedly gotten cold feet about giving Bobb more con trol, for fear that it will inspire a backlash from Detroiters who’ll see it as a move to strip them of power over their schools.
So non-Detroit legislators — including bill sponsors Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, and Rep. Tim Melton, D-Au burn Hills — can’t get the votes to work out the differences between their two bills. And the Detroit delegation has yet to step forward to demand the changes that would help Bobb get control of the district’s mismanaged academics, much as he is working to rein in its financial problems.
Detroiters themselves can help resolve this knee-knocking trepidation. By contacting their legislators (whose phone numbers appear here) they can make it clear what they want. Should the school board remain in control of academics? Or should Bobb get a chance?
Here’s a bet on what they might say: Go for it with Bobb. Bobb’s work has been popular, as at least partially evidenced by the backing voters gave his bond proposal (a fairly risky financial proposition) in November. His arrival was greeted with cheers, not the anger that you still see direct ed at the school board during meetings. And his swift action has won him many allies among parents and other stakeholders.
This also isn’t just about De troit. The legislation at issue would give the state superintendent more power to inter vene in every struggling dis trict. And, by the way, that’s a key component of what the federal government will be looking for when it awards Race to the Top money (which could mean hundreds of mil lions to Michigan). How silly to let an old argument over “control” of Detroit’s schools interfere.
Moreover, conceding that Bobb needs emergency power over all the district’s activities doesn’t preclude the more se rious and much needed de bate over the district’s long term governance structure. This isn’t a takeover; it’s an in tervention to fix a serious problem.
What a shame it would be if legislators let a few empty threats keep them from delivering urgent help to the city’s children.
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