Update: Thursday, 1:40 p.m. -- Mayor Mike Duggan expressed his displeasure with the House action and said in a statement:
I’m deeply concerned that the legislation adopted by the House of Representatives last night will inevitably repeat the tragic mistakes of 2009. The bills return some control of a broken system to the local board without adequate funding to reverse the declines of the last 7 years, and without any new method of accountability in the classroom, DEC or otherwise.
In the last two weeks, I met with numerous members of the House of Representatives who had thoughtful ideas on how to make sure that, this time, the transition of DPS has a realistic chance of success. Unfortunately, those ideas did not end up in the final bills.
The state can’t just throw up its hands and give up in frustration, passing a bill that has no chance of providing educational success for Detroit’s children. I urge Governor Snyder and the Republican and Democratic leadership in Lansing to work to resolve the differences in these bills so that this time we get a result that truly improves our children’s achievement in the classroom.
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From Earlier Today
The Detroit Public Schools, which has been under state control for well over a decade, got some financial relief early Thursday morning when the state House of Representatives voted to approve a Republican sponsored package of bills intended to fix the financial crisis, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press reports:
Republicans said the bills will provide the district with the tools to improve education in the city. But Democrats were unanimous in their opposition to the bills and said not only were the bills a stark example of institutional racism, but also will result in the district being forced to come back to the Legislature in a few years beca.use the funding and oversight were inadequate. The package of six bills passed on votes ranging fromm 55-53, the bare minimum needed for passage, to 61-49.
The House package splits the district in two – one to pay off the debt and the other district to take over the day-to-day operations of the district – and provides $500 million to the district to help pay off the DPS operating deficit, which has been estimated at $515 million. It also provides a $33 million loan to help with the transition to a new district. Gov. Rick Snyder proposed $200 million for those transition costs and the Senate and a coalition of district stakeholders concurred in that amount. The $500 million would come from annual tobacco settlement revenues that come into the state.
“This package not only solves the financial problems of the district, but focuses on the students and allows for every tool to be available for improvement,” said state Rep. Daniela Garcia, R-Holland. But House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, said that without more adequate funding and oversight, the $500 million would be a waste of money.
“This does nothing to address the underlying causes of the problems facing the Detroit Public Schools,” he said. “This makes the problems worse not better.”
