Control of Detroit Schools could be on ballot
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June 2, 2009
Control of Detroit schools could be on ballot
Detroit lawmaker to seek Nov. vote
BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER A ballot proposal that could give Detroit's mayor some control over the city's troubled school system may soon go before the state Legislature.
Rep. LaMar Lemmons Jr., D-Detroit, said he plans to introduce a bill in the next two weeks that would allow Detroit voters to decide in November whether to effectively make the school district a city department. The mayor would run the schools, while a smaller elected board would approve the schools' budget to provide checks and balances akin to how the City Council works.
The bill is significant because it's the first effort to get mayoral control -- a move advocated by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Mayor Dave Bing -- on the ballot in time for the November election.
Duncan has $5 billion in stimulus funds to grant to school districts that make sweeping changes, and he has said that mayoral control is one change he wants to see in Detroit, a district he called a "national disgrace."
Details of Lemmons' bill are still being hashed out, but it would allow voters to make the city charter revisions necessary to make the schools part of city government, he said.
"I wouldn't think it prudent to move unilaterally without the citizens' support," he said.
Mayoral control may be harder to fight this time
Jeffery Robinson, like many Detroiters, wants Bing to prove he can run a deficit-ridden city before taking over a deficit-ridden school system. Still, he fears a takeover of Detroit Public Schools could happen because few people are stepping up to oppose it.
"You have a perfect storm. Voters are more concerned with looking for a job, keeping a roof over their head," said Robinson, a board member for the Detroit Parent Network.
"Apathy and political deception is going to default us into a situation that no one is thinking about because of the economy."
Just weeks after President Barack Obama's education secretary stood with Granholm and Bing to advocate for a mayoral takeover of DPS, a bill is being drafted that could put the issue before city voters in November.
Interest groups and politicians are publicly split: Like Robinson, opponents say the mayor's plate is too full to take on DPS. But supporters say DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb's quick actions to try to balance DPS's budget may show the benefits of paring down the school board in favor of more streamlined governance.
In fewer than three months, Bobb ascertained a $305-million deficit in the district, fired 33 principals at low-performing schools, uncovered cases of employee theft and closed 29 schools.
Disputes aside, all parties agree on one point: A major change is needed to resolve the deficit, declining enrollment and a 58% graduation rate.
Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor-based think tank, released a report this year that shows the state's prosperity is linked to Detroit's educational attainment, or lack thereof. If Detroit is lagging, so is Michigan. "Of 54 metropolitan areas with populations of 1 million or more, the Detroit region ranked 37th in knowledge-based industries concentration," or industries that require higher education, "and 36th in college attainment," according to the report.
Doug Rothwell, president of Detroit Renaissance, which is comprised of the leaders of the region's largest universities and companies, agreed that a focus on education "is critical to turning around the city so that Detroit can attract and retain residents and businesses."
He said the group strongly supports the mayor having oversight of DPS to "increase accountability and support for the tough restructuring that is necessary."
Times have changed
Many of the unions, politicians, parents and grassroots civic groups that fought in 2004 to repeal mayoral control of schools still oppose it. The grassroots group Keep the Vote No Takeover, which rose up when then-Gov. John Engler advocated for the 1999 takeover of DPS, is one of the few mobilizing again.
Keep the Vote joined forces with the more radical group, By Any Means Necessary, and fought the takeover through federal court. The activists lost in appeals court, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case in 2003.
But it might not be so easy to build an army to fight this time. Times have changed. Protests are not as well-attended or as boisterous as during the takeover that lasted from 1999 through 2005, when school police, on several occasions, removed or tussled with demonstrators.
"Detroit was the one place that was able to hold off and slay the beast" of mayoral control, said Helen Moore, a founding member of Keep the Vote. "Now the problem is: Will the parents rise up and continue the effort? Will Detroit be able to do that again? Not without the involvement of all parties that were involved before."
In 1999, Lansing politicians who pushed the takeover law said replacing the school board with one largely appointed by the mayor would improve achievement in DPS. The racially charged debate over control of DPS and its $1-billion-plus budget would, for years, revolve around a few issues:
• Whether Detroiters had the right to vote for school board members.
• Whether then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick could be trusted to control the schools.
• Whether Lansing should strip Detroit -- and only Detroit -- of home rule.
• And whether it was all a Republican ploy to control a $1.5-billion school construction bond.
Ultimately, the takeover ended with modest gains in elementary school MEAP scores and a $200-million deficit. Voters repealed the mayor-appointed board and elected a new board in 2005. The board took office in January 2006.
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP, led the campaign against mayoral control. He also led a Granholm-appointed transition team that made recommendations to the elected board for improving DPS. The board largely ignored the report, but Bobb said it has helped him tackle the current deficit.
Anthony said the NAACP hasn't taken a position on the issue, but control over Detroit schools should "have the will of the people."
"The school board has been disastrous," he said. "What is currently being used ain't working. And right now, it ain't about us, it's about our children."
Shirley Stancato, president and chief executive officer of New Detroit Inc., said the group has not taken a position on mayoral control, but "it's probably one of the pieces of the puzzle we should look at. We should forget about taking this side, or that side, and show some cohesion and do what's right for the children."
N .Charles Anderson, president of the Detroit Urban League and a former school board member who supported mayoral control in 2004, said the emergency financial manager should remain in place for a few years while other options are researched.
"We are seeing what can be done when you have determined leadership who is trying to make the best decisions as we watch Robert Bobb. Sometimes, management by committee doesn't work," he said.
"We need to get back to the table and find a good governance structure."
Local politicians split
School board members and Detroit lawmakers also are split over the issue. The state Legislature stripped financial control of DPS from the city in 1949, giving it to the school board.
Now Lemmons expects to introduce a bill in the next two weeks to allow Detroit voters to decide in November on whether the schools should become a city department under control of the mayor.
Rep. George Cushingberry, D-Detroit, chairman of the House appropriations committee, said mayoral control is a bad idea and is far from inevitable. "The district is still reeling from the last state takeover," he said. "Our experience is not good."
There are other options, he said.
"My opinion is we ought to break the district up into eight smaller units, with smaller boards, and allow them to enter into contracts with the other districts to purchase certain services, so they could have power in buying stuff," he said.
The mayor's support of charter schools -- which are run by school boards that are not elected -- could turn off some voters, said school board member Annie Carter, who opposes mayoral control.
"What gives me assurance as a taxpayer, not as a board member, that we would have any kind of accountability?" she said.
Board member Margaret Betts said parents need to lead the debate.
"Adding a mayor or another hierarchy on this system doesn't mean it's going to be successful," she said.
Other obstacles
The National School Boards Association, one of the staunchest national opponents of mayoral control, said Detroit's school board is going to have a hard time proving that it should stay in power since the governor took away its control over the budget.
To fight off a mayoral takeover, school boards should focus on raising student achievement and using resources well, said Anne Bryant, NSBA executive director.
"If you have the data to show you're being good governors and achievement is on the rise, the noise will go away," she said. "If you have no budgeting power, it's very hard."
Contact CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313- 223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com. Staff writer Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki contributed to this report.
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