DETROIT (WXYZ) — The crisis of crumbling old school buildings continues to plague the Detroit Public Schools Community District. In a district so large, it is hard to visually show the problem, so we took a look at the numbers.
The Detroit Public Schools Community District says right now its school buildings need about $500 million in repairs. However because lawmakers banned the district from borrowing money, it has only about $9 million to spend.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti sat down with 7 Action News to discuss the challenges.
He says people need to understand how the district got where it is. He says state appointed emergency managers took control of the district away from the locally elected school board for almost two decades. During that time they neglected to maintain buildings and ran the district into bankruptcy. Only two years ago the state returned the district to local control
Since the state returned local control, Vitti says enrollment has increased by thousands and students are making academic progress.
“No one can look at our district and not say we have positive momentum,” said Vitti.
Still, too many schools are crumbling. One example is Palmer Park Academy. Last year the superintendent forced students there to leave the building and attend a different school because the roof was leaking.
“We had concerns about mold,” explains Vitti.
That has been fixed, but inspection reports show other problems at Palmer Park that will cost $25 million to fix. District-wide a report found a staggering $500 million in repairs need to be done.
Superintendent Vitti says lawmakers need to act to address two things. One is how schools are funded. The district’s funding is tied to property tax values.
Plus, when lawmakers restructured the district out of bankruptcy, they banned it from borrowing. As a result Vitti says this year it has only $9 million to spend on building repairs
“In order to put band aids on gushing wounds right now,” said Vitti.
Over the years there has been a group of lobbyists with the support of some lawmakers open about their goals to orchestrate the end of the school district. Some have said their goal is the outsourcing of education through a voucher system, eventually state-wide.
Superintendent Vitti says it is not a conspiracy theory to say there are still some who want that to happen.
"If lawmakers are not willing to revisit how the debt is paid, if they are not willing to think out of the box and give us more access to capital, then it is about ensuring that DPS can’t be successful,” said Vitti of the path lawmakers have laid for the district.
Superintendent Vitti says right now his goal is sharing the problem so the business community and parents put pressure on Lansing for change. He says he believes the district has a bright future, with the right policies in place.
