LANSING, Mich. – A Detroit Public Schools bailout package was introduced in the state Capitol on Thursday, nearly nine months after Gov. Rick Snyder's original proposal.
Read: Detroit Public Schools legislation
It is a lifeboat built by Lansing Republicans for a sinking district that independent reports suggest could run out of cash by April. But Detroit Democrats still have concerns about who will pilot that boat, even though they will get the governance changes that they demanded.
Like the original plan, it will leave the old district behind with its debts, which are to be repaid by an estimated $70 million per year from the state.
A new district will be created without the debt burden, and it will theoretically have more money for students and instruction. The source of funds is yet to be worked out. Its author is cautiously optimistic that outstate lawmakers will find the money.
"There's a high level of concern, because there's a fact everybody knows: We have a financial issue we need to address ... that the kids in Detroit deserve a quality education and it must be done right," said Sen. Geoff Hansen, R-Hart.
Beginning in July, the new district will be overseen by an appointed board, five of those members will be selected by the governor and four by the mayor, and a new board will be elected in November and take command in January 2017.
The appointed board will hire the new superintendent.
"When the elected board comes in, you can't get rid of the superintendent. So, what's the purpose of having local control, if the elected school board can't get rid of the superintendent?" said Sen. Coleman Young, D-Detroit.
There's no academic blueprint on how the money will be spent. There's no mention about what will happen to the EAA. But the bottom-performing 5 percent of schools will fall under a new CEO.
"We want to make sure there's an equal playing field in this bidding process and that the charters won't come in and take the 5 percent, and then over a period of time, just dissolve DPS," said Senate Minority Leader Morris Hood.
Some of the outrage is political theater, and Detroit Democrats will continue working behind the scenes to get their concerns addressed. But, they know that no one else is building a lifeboat and they may be forced to get into this one.
Some of the money may come out of the School Aid Fund onwhich their districts rely on.
Outstate lawmakers in both parties must still be convinced that the money for Detroit, which their districts also need, is a wise investment.
Hansen admits that getting their support is made more difficult by the epidemic of teacher sick-outs and lost days of instruction for children.
Because the appointed board will be chaired by a Detroit mayoral nominee and three others from the city, Hansen feels that there should be no quarrel with the superintendent selection once the elected board is seated.
A spending plan is absent from the bills, but Hansen said: "We are going to leave that up to the professionals, the new superintendent and elected board. We want this to be a Detroit solution."
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's statement:
Last March, the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren released a comprehensive set of recommendations to address the long-standing issues that have saddled Detroit’s district and charter schools for years. These recommendations, which I fully support, were made after this diverse group spent months conducting extensive research and analysis of these issues.
Coalition members and I, along with community stakeholders, the AFT and the State Board of Education, are working closely with our Detroit legislators to have a single, unified position to eliminate the debt that is choking our schools, return control of DPS to a locally elected school board and to create a Detroit Education Commission to establish a single standard of performance for all public schools in Detroit – district and charter.
We will keep working on this issue until we have a framework for an educational system in Detroit that consistently provides our children with the quality education they deserve.