Detroit school board to learn how Bobb will use increased powers

Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News

Detroit — Members of the Detroit Board of Education will learn tonight what powers they have left now that a new state law has given Emergency Manager Robert Bobb total control of Detroit Public Schools.

Attorneys for Bobb will meet privately with board members and their attorney at 6 p.m. in a closed session to discuss Public Act 4, signed March 16 by Gov. Rick Snyder. The measure expands the power of Bobb and other emergency managers, including the right to recommend the removal of elected officials from office.

In an interview Friday with The Detroit News, Bobb vowed to continue working with the board and unions to turn around the deficit-ridden district, which has been under a financial emergency for more than two years.

Bobb said he plans to place conditions on the board, an action allowed under Public Act 4, but he would not disclose the nature of those conditions.

"There has been a significant sea change in our relationship the last few months," Bobb said. "Everyone knows the new law. If you have the club, you don't have to use it, but you know the time when to use it."

Continued at: http://detnews.com/article/20110328/...#ixzz1HwWftCuy

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Originally Posted by begingri

Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News

"There has been a significant sea change in our relationship the last few months," Bobb said. "Everyone knows the new law. If you have the club, you don't have to use it, but you know the time when to use it."

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I don't hear this effect discussed much. The actual use of this power is much less important than the changes in the behaviors of public sector unions that this will bring long before its needed. There's now a consequence to too much success for public unions. They'll now have a stake in the city's success. If the city fails, they fail too.

I love it. The dictator is going to tell his subjects what they've lost, what he's gained, and the new district pecking order. How generous and benevolent of him. I, for one, welcome our new district overlord. While we're at it, why don't we just recall Robocop from layoff and resurrect and reanimate the corpose of Coleman A. Young for EFM?

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Originally Posted by NorthEnder

I love it. The dictator is going to tell his subjects what they've lost, what he's gained, and the new district pecking order. How generous and benevolent of him. I, for one, welcome our new district overlord. While we're at it, why don't we just recall Robocop from layoff and resurrect and reanimate the corpose of Coleman A. Young for EFM?

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I guess the fact that in the last 10 years 1/2 of the DPS student count has left the district is somehow lost on you??

Not in the least bit. Is it lost on you that the district was basically under de facto state control from 1999 to 2005, already? I guess my point is how are you even going to connect state outside control with improvement in the district, when there is no proof for this, and actually an example that shows quite the opposite? Who administers DPS obviously isn't the root cause of the problem.

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Originally Posted by NorthEnder

Not in the least bit. Is it lost on you that the district was basically under de facto state control from 1999 to 2005, already? I guess my point is how are you even going to connect state outside control with improvement in the district, when there is no proof for this, and actually an example that shows quite the opposite? Who administers DPS obviously isn't the root cause of the problem.

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Ummm although this problem didn't magically appear in 1999... it's been festering for decades with an inept school administration, as well as parental and student indifference.

People should be realistic about what an EFM for the DPS can do. He can cut stuff until the deficit goes away [[we hope). He can't make the schools function, and in the context of massive cuts they will probably function less well, or at least they would if that were a realistic possibility. The sad truth is that there is no one who knows how to make the DPS or school systems like it work. It is an unsolved problem,

When you think about it Bobb had an almost impossible job. It is hard enough to create a balance budget for the current school year giving the massive reduction of kids on a yearly basis, but when you start to try and make a dent into the accumulated deficit and at the same time try to remake the district so as to attract more students is a real tough task. I wonder if it can be done.

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Originally Posted by Gistok

Ummm although this problem didn't magically appear in 1999... it's been festering for decades with an inept school administration, as well as parental and student indifference.

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Ok... You can't have it both ways. You can't bring up the exodus of students over the last ten years and then cry foul when someone notes that the state effectively had control of the schools for 6 of those ten years. Not to mention that the system had a surplus when the state first took control in 1999 and a deficit when it relinquished control. Then when it took control again [[under Bobb) to fix the finances, they actually got worse. All NorthEnder is saying is the state doesn't have a good track record. And it doesn't.

Why should we accept excuses for the state's failure to-date? We don't accept excuses from the board or school administrators or teachers, do we?

Others are saying that the problems weren't all of the nature that an emergency financial manager could fix. Well now he is not just a "financial" manager. He is a god. So, since Lansing thinks it takes a god to fix finances, and therefore carved one with their own hands, let's see him work a miracle.

I'm no fan of the new EFM legislation, but I have to say that the DPS school board is so incompetent they make the city council look like the founding fathers. However, the problems facing DPS would be hard to solve even by a room full of geniuses, so there's no way it's going to happen without outside help.