If something isn’t done to address the debt in Detroit Public Schools, the district faces bankruptcy as soon as this April.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is calling on lawmakers to consider his plan to help the district.
With the House and Senate controlled by Republicans, Detroit’s Democratic lawmakers have limited power. As a result lawmakers outside Detroit are forming plans for Detroit Public Schools.
The Senate has been debating a plan to create two districts, one that handles the debt and one that educates. It also wants to provide over $700 million over the course of ten years to help the district address its debt.
Bankruptcy experts say if the district goes into bankruptcy the cost to the state will be many times higher.
House Republicans added to the Senate plan yesterday. It works to take away power from unions in the district, change benefits for new employees, and change standards for teacher certification only in Detroit.
Mayor Mike Duggan responded to the legislation that would create a lower standard for who can become a certified teacher only in Detroit.
“I am certainly against lowering standards for teachers in Detroit,” said Duggan.
Many teachers see it as an effort to decrease the value of teachers who are already relatively low paid. After all, House Republicans also want to take away the union’s right to negotiate on employee issues.
Mayor Duggan said that is a proposal that at this serious time isn’t helping anybody.
He called on lawmakers to create a commission to oversee all schools in Detroit, coordinate where public and charter schools open, and force failing schools to close.
It is a plan some charter school operators have strongly lobbied against. They say the market should decide where schools open. Duggan says since they rely on public tax dollars to survive and impact kids, there should be local control.
“What we have right now in the city is 17 charter schools performing worse than Detroit Public Schools. So you are taking money out of DPS and spending it on schools doing worse than DPS,” said Duggan.
The commission is something House Republicans said at this time they’re not interested in.
The mayor also wants local control (such as a school board and superintendent) to replace emergency management. He says state oversight of local leaders is a fair compromise.
He says the work of emergency managers has over the course of seven years increased DPS debt in the hundreds of millions, hurt the district’s credit rating, and driven kids from the district.
“Emergency management has been terrible for DPS and needs to come to an end,” said Duggan.
