DPS Proposed Budget

[DetroitTeacher]

Here is a link to the DPS proposed budget that just hit my email

http://detroitk12.org.nyud.net/data/...sed_Budget.pdf

[eastsidechris]

Wow, if I continue to work for DPS, I might be all the way back down to my starting salary by the time I retire. [[And you know I'm only sorta joking.)

[DetroitTeacher]

eastsidechris: I'm not so sure about the joking part. I'll have to cut wayyyy back on what I spend in the classroom and for the kids [[toilet paper, paper, pens, resource materials, etc). I think I'll keep buying the extra strength hand sanitzer and Lysol because of the 80/20 health coverage! I'm NEVER sick until I get around the kids...for the first half of the year, I'm at the doc's office quite a bit!

[65memories]

DetroitTeacher and eastsidechris, it's amazing that people don't see the smoke and mirrors. Today's Freep article [[http://www.freep.com/article/2011062...text|FRONTPAGE) on 1.6 million spent on travel and consultant raises under Bobb's watch underscores that. Teachers have been sacrificing wages and working under challenging conditions for years.. As an administrator, I gave up so much pay in my last years with DPS [[10% each year) that my retirement was affected. Increased spending while those in the schools give up more. And the beat goes on...

[SWMAP]

I work for a non-profit with a budget of under $15 million annually. Many years we spend at least $500,000 on strategic consultancy, research etc. In the scheme of things and the situation that DPS has been in regarding scores, Federal compliances and considering the huge budget, $1.5 million on consultancies and research is certainly in the ballpark. I have no idea why this is even a story.

[Baselinepunk]

Well, the key is who were these consultants and what were the consulting.

Robert Bobb has proven the EFM model is ineffectual. He's just another pimp making money off of Detroit kids.

[Zacha341]

I hear he is still on the payroll thru end of June, along with his highest paid consultants and the consultants of the consultants etc, the other 'enterouge' members... oh boy. DPS will continue to payout big salaries, and fees right up thru to the end...

Well, the key is who were these consultants and what were the consulting.

Robert Bobb has proven the EFM model is ineffectual. He's just another pimp making money off of Detroit kids.

[Locke09]

I work for a non-profit with a budget of under $15 million annually. Many years we spend at least $500,000 on strategic consultancy, research etc. In the scheme of things and the situation that DPS has been in regarding scores, Federal compliances and considering the huge budget, $1.5 million on consultancies and research is certainly in the ballpark. I have no idea why this is even a story.

It doesn't say they spent 1.5 million on consultancies and research. It says they spent 1.6 million just on travel for the consultants/contractors. It also says they had many contractors [[a more accurate description) who made twice what the person they replaced made. It talked about significant raises given to the contractors, at the same time they were asking teachers for concessions.

DPS employees were trying to say this was going on ever since they were asked for concessions. No news organization tried to find out if they were telling the truth. Employees can spot hypocrisy in leaders the same way children can spot hypocrisy in parents. When they try to challenge the hypocrisy, both groups [[employees and children) are accused of being whiny, contrary and obstinate.

If you are really trying to reduce deficits and save money, you don't replace one employee with another that costs twice or nearly three times as much, and does not produce any meaningful improvements. Just one example: DPS curriculum person earned about 94K. Bobb's curriculum person earned 260K.

[Hypestyles]

....who are the people who buy bonds? how does this work as an investment? How many years do they last?

[DetroitTeacher]

Personally, I wouldn't buy ANYTHING DPS is selling!

....who are the people who buy bonds? how does this work as an investment? How many years do they last?

[SWMAP]

Quite right that I misread a headline about the $1.5 million. I do hope that the results of those expenditures for the District are better than the results of the Sherry Washington wellness program of a few years ago.
I also have a question: all those jobs in curriculum planning and such that went tonoutside contractors: what happened to the people that previously held those positions? Were they let go? Did they get bumped back to classrooms?

[DetroitTeacher]

They were let go...they never were in classrooms as their expertise is not in teaching [[rarely does anyone in admin downtown have any experience in the classroom).

[English]

Infuriating. No, I can't be shut up and be nice about this issue. This is NOT going to be the golden ticket to achievement for DPS kids. I'm sick and tired of those who support these "reforms" accusing their opponents of supporting the status quo. This is not an either-or situation... it's not either "continued failure" or "create a McDistrict." There are many solutions that have yet to be explored.

The entire EFM concept is undemocratic and likely unconstitutional. I am angry for what my former colleagues are going through, and as I said on that debacle of a thread earlier this week, Michigan college and university employees are next.

[Det_ard]

The entire EFM concept is undemocratic and likely unconstitutional. I am angry for what my former colleagues are going through, and as I said on that debacle of a thread earlier this week, Michigan college and university employees are next.

How could they not be? Colleges and universities have failed to control their costs. Tuition increases have dwarfed CPI for decades.


They even make the housing bubble look like a speed bump. Is this sustainable?

[Zacha341]

Yep, colleges are next for the 'treatment' indeed! And lowering of tuition will hardly happen, but the shifting of funds to the managing entity and accompanying enterouge will occur.

Infuriating. No, I can't be shut up and be nice about this issue. This is NOT going to be the golden ticket to achievement for DPS kids. I'm sick and tired of those who support these "reforms" accusing their opponents of supporting the status quo. This is not an either-or situation... it's not either "continued failure" or "create a McDistrict." There are many solutions that have yet to be explored.

The entire EFM concept is undemocratic and likely unconstitutional. I am angry for what my former colleagues are going through, and as I said on that debacle of a thread earlier this week, Michigan college and university employees are next.

[English]

I'll be the first to admit it. Colleges and universities waste a lot of money. But just like in K-12, instructors will take the brunt of the pain. Administrators, capital projects, platinum-plated sports programs, etc. will not. That's because just like K-12 reforms aren't really about children, higher ed reform isn't really about learning or knowledge. Follow the money!

Shared sacrifice is understandable, but this isn't like the 1930s. There IS no sharing going on. DPS teachers took concessions. We're likely going to have to take concessions, too. But people making $30-60K plus benefits are not what's wrong with this country. Outsourcing and bleeding out the corporate sector certainly hasn't worked many miracles there, so I can't see it doing much for the public sector.

Here's what I think will happen as a result of these policies. I think our struggling schools will worsen, and I believe some of that will start to infect many "safe" suburbs. I believe that we will return to a nation where neither home ownership nor a college education are within reach for the vast majority of people. In short, I predict a return to the socioeconomic structures that existed in the late 19th and early 20th century. There will be much more volatile markets [[they had a "Panic" every other year back then), the ranks of the underclass will swell, and crime rates will start to spike.

Worst of all, our national infrastructure will continue to crumble. I'll never forget talking with a late friend of mine who was a researcher at U-M during an educational policy session right after the MN bridge collapse. "Maybe we'll get another public works project," he said. "Most of our roads, bridges, plants, etc. were built during or before the 1960s. Nearly a half century later, there's a lot to take care of."

Well, that will NEVER happen in the current political climate. We will continue to patch up what our ancestors built here and there, and pretend it's OK until that patchwork crumbles.

The current adult generations are running this country into the ground and that's all there is to it. It can't be excused. We're squandering the nation that our grandparents built after WWII simply because we don't give a whit for their ideals. It's wicked.

[kraig]

Has anyone noticed that the headlines always name Bobb when the story is about cuts, but then always name DPS when the story is about questionable spending? Even though it's Bobb that's doing the spending.

[Locke09]

Here's what I think will happen as a result of these policies. I think our struggling schools will worsen, and I believe some of that will start to infect many "safe" suburbs. I believe that we will return to a nation where neither home ownership nor a college education are within reach for the vast majority of people. In short, I predict a return to the socioeconomic structures that existed in the late 19th and early 20th century. There will be much more volatile markets [[they had a "Panic" every other year back then), the ranks of the underclass will swell, and crime rates will start to spike.

That paragraph sums up some of my greatest fears for the future of this country, from a socio-economic perspective. Add to this that there are fewer safety nets for displaced and underemployed people because we have little tolerance for social programs these days.

[Novine]

"Add to this that there are fewer safety nets for displaced and underemployed people because we have little tolerance for social programs these days."

That's what you hear from the chattering class in the media and from politicians in Lansing and Washington DC. But polling of Americans show that people don't want to see Social Security or Medicare cut. Paul Ryan might be the darling of the DC cocktail circuit but many voters don't like his proposals.

[DetroitFats]

Thank God Mr. Bobb had one last chance to wag his finger at me [[a selfish DPS teacher) before leaving, and to remind me that it is all about the children. While I greedily earn almost $50, 000 a year teaching, counseling, giving music lessons, reading, writing, eating lunch and working on after-school projects with the children, Mr. Bobb has been forced to accept a paltry $770, 000 for his two years work. There were times when he had to spend as much as ten minutes with the students, posing for pictures or announcing the end of social promotion in DPS. I, on the other hand, only have to teach classes of 40-42 students five times a day, five days a week. Of course, some of his pay was subsidized by the very groups whose obvious goal is to destroy DPS and install a system of for-profit schools, but, as I’ve been told repeatedly, education is a business, and should be run exactly like a business. Also, Mr. Bobb has heroically devoted two years of his life to our school district, while I have put in less than eight. While it is true that I [[as well as every other teacher in DPS) have received a layoff notice, I am not too concerned. I know that my avaricious union will protect and defend me. After all, in the time I have worked for DPS, the only sacrifices I have been asked to make are “lending” the district an interest-free $10,000, paying an additional 3% of my salary to the state for other public employees’ benefits, lending the district five days of pay and five days of sick time [[some of which was actually paid back!), giving up hundreds of hours of prep time with no compensation, having oversized classes every year, and attending countless workshops after school and on weekends that I was never paid for. Therefore, the 10% pay cut proposed by our new EFM should not pose much of a problem for me. I am grateful that the union was able to take time from protecting the jobs of innumerable incompetent teachers to allow me these Cadillac benefits.
So thank you Mr. Bobb, for all you have done for me and for the district. I know that you will move on to a new city, most likely repeating the astonishing successes you have achieved here in Detroit and in Washington D.C. as well. And don’t worry about what the critics say. So what if your emergency financial manager expertise actually drove us farther into debt—At least a large group of out-of-state contractors and consultants were able to get rich on the backs of the children, who, as you have repeatedly pointed out, are the real reason we all work in education.

[Zacha341]

^^^^ Speak ON IT, D'Facts - DFats! ^^^^

[DetroitTeacher]

Amen-from a fellow teacher

Thank God Mr. Bobb had one last chance to wag his finger at me [[a selfish DPS teacher) before leaving, and to remind me that it is all about the children. While I greedily earn almost $50, 000 a year teaching, counseling, giving music lessons, reading, writing, eating lunch and working on after-school projects with the children, Mr. Bobb has been forced to accept a paltry $770, 000 for his two years work. There were times when he had to spend as much as ten minutes with the students, posing for pictures or announcing the end of social promotion in DPS. I, on the other hand, only have to teach classes of 40-42 students five times a day, five days a week. Of course, some of his pay was subsidized by the very groups whose obvious goal is to destroy DPS and install a system of for-profit schools, but, as I’ve been told repeatedly, education is a business, and should be run exactly like a business. Also, Mr. Bobb has heroically devoted two years of his life to our school district, while I have put in less than eight. While it is true that I [[as well as every other teacher in DPS) have received a layoff notice, I am not too concerned. I know that my avaricious union will protect and defend me. After all, in the time I have worked for DPS, the only sacrifices I have been asked to make are “lending” the district an interest-free $10,000, paying an additional 3% of my salary to the state for other public employees’ benefits, lending the district five days of pay and five days of sick time [[some of which was actually paid back!), giving up hundreds of hours of prep time with no compensation, having oversized classes every year, and attending countless workshops after school and on weekends that I was never paid for. Therefore, the 10% pay cut proposed by our new EFM should not pose much of a problem for me. I am grateful that the union was able to take time from protecting the jobs of innumerable incompetent teachers to allow me these Cadillac benefits.
So thank you Mr. Bobb, for all you have done for me and for the district. I know that you will move on to a new city, most likely repeating the astonishing successes you have achieved here in Detroit and in Washington D.C. as well. And don’t worry about what the critics say. So what if your emergency financial manager expertise actually drove us farther into debt—At least a large group of out-of-state contractors and consultants were able to get rich on the backs of the children, who, as you have repeatedly pointed out, are the real reason we all work in education.

[Scottathew]

Teachers can be the BIGGEST whiners.

- They get pensions! [[Teacher's don't understand that in the real world we don't get those)
- They got rock solid health care [[and whine when they have deductibles)
- They get paid well for working from 7am-3pm. [[Don't forget, they have a prep hour and a short lunch during their school day)
- They get more vacation DURING the school year than most people get all year.
- They don't work during the summer.
- After four years almost all teachers are granted tenure making them virtually fire-proof.
- Many districts top out at 70-90k per year. [[Don't forget, they're going to get a pension too when they retire)

[Novine]

Sounds fair for the work that we ask teachers to do. The only whining I hear is from someone who has probably never worked a day in the classroom and apparently thinks there works is more important than a teacher's.

[Zacha341]

NO! The biggest whiners are our pampered and richly rewarded and coddled sports stars! A gander at the recent sports headlines bear this fact out!

Teachers can be the BIGGEST whiners.

- They get pensions! [[Teacher's don't understand that in the real world we don't get those)
- They got rock solid health care [[and whine when they have deductibles)
- They get paid well for working from 7am-3pm. [[Don't forget, they have a prep hour and a short lunch during their school day)
- They get more vacation DURING the school year than most people get all year.
- They don't work during the summer.
- After four years almost all teachers are granted tenure making them virtually fire-proof.
- Many districts top out at 70-90k per year. [[Don't forget, they're going to get a pension too when they retire)