BY DAVID JESSE, CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY AND CHRIS CHRISTOFF

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS


Gov. Rick Snyder will create a new authority to run several failing Detroit Public Schools as part of a sweeping reform package to be announced Monday for the struggling district, sources said.

The plan would restructure the failing school district, which has a $327 million budget deficit, by moving underperforming DPS schools under a new authority to be run by current DPS Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts, according to sources.

Roberts would have the authority to make new work rules at those schools, a process sources familiar with the discussions said could take a year. A law passed this year gives emergency managers new powers to control academic and financial matters and to cancel or modify union contracts.

A southeast Michigan university, widely believed in higher education circles to be Eastern Michigan University, would also be involved to do teacher training in the schools.

It’s unclear exactly how the new authority would work. Details were not being released by anyone in advance of a press conference scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Renaissance High School in Detroit.

However, sources said that the Broad Foundation and other philanthropic organizations will pump significant amounts of money into the new authority. According to sources, Snyder has had several meetings with Eli Broad, the founder of the foundation, which is dedicated to education reform and has assets of more than $2 billion.

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