Former DPS communications director says state should take over, break up DPS

[Irvine Laird]

http://www.freep.com/article/2009062...3/City+schools

Lekan Oguntoyimbo, DPS's former director of communications, wrote a guest editorial for today's Free Press. Obuntoyimbo compares his former employer to "Somalia" and says he favors the state taking control of DPS and breaking into smaller school districts. Several first-hand accounts of abuse, corruption, and neglect reinforce Oguntoyimbo's case.

Wow! This is the strongest language I have encountered on DPS outside this forum. And it comes from the district's former spokesperson himself.

Just when I think I can't find out anything worse about DPS...

[bailey]

Just when I think I can't find out anything worse about DPS..

Is it a bad thing? first step in any recovery is admitting there is a problem right?

[Irvine Laird]

It's not a bad thing. I'm glad Oguntoyimbo wrote the column.

Most of the time, I would suspect a comparison like "Somalia" to be hyperbole, but that description is dead on. I'm shocked.

[firstandten]

One of the first and most significant things Mr. Bobb did when assuming his position was to let the employees know that If they knew of any wrong doing fraud etc. he wanted to know about it by e-mail, phone etc. By accounts that I heard, his e-mail account blew up with people who wanted to report what they knew.

What that represented was a tearing down of a corporate culture which punished anybody going above or around there immediate supervisor to report anything that looked like wrongdoing. Because people did not know whom to trust many just kept there mouths shut and did their jobs.

It had to be hard for Lekan to put a happy face on all of the mismanagement while at DPS and I don't doubt for a minute that everything he says is correct and he probably knows of other stuff he didn't mention in the article.

I would like however to give the Mayor a shot at this before breaking up DPS into smaller districts. I do think that you would have some efficiencies of scale because of its size which you might not get under smaller, separate districts, plus the last thing Detroit needs is 4 or 5 more bureaucracies even if they are smaller.

I like Rep Lemmons idea other than the fact he wants an elected board to provide oversight to the mayor. I think the existing council can provide the oversight needed.

[professorscott]

Economies of scale only work in businesses, not government operations. When you allow government operations to get large, they simply become less responsive.

Here's an experiment: those of you that live in physically small communities, like Berkley or Fraser, try to call a City Councilperson and ask a question. Now, those of you who live in Detroit do the same. Let me know how it goes.

I've always felt the City of Detroit would be better served by smaller districts, perhaps each with a high school and the elementary and middle schools that feed it. Then the elected board is answerable to fewer people and therefore is more accountable. Some of these mini-districts will succeed and others will fail, but that might be preferable to the current situation where almost the entire thing is a train wreck.

Of course, State law prohibits Detroit from having more than one school district! Madison Heights can have eleven if it wants, but Detroit only one. So that would have to change, in order to give any significantly new structure a try.

[Hypestyles]

dissolve DPS totally, then have an independent commission [[with input from the sitting mayor & governor's office) recreate it.. Eliminating all the loopholes for hiring, contracts, etc.; have much stricter rules for teacher & student productivity..