Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press believes the singular focus on the next mayor's administration should be fixing the Detroit Public Schools. She her column here: http://www.freep.com/article/20090501/COL10/905010339
Riley makes a strong statement in the column: The schools should not revert to the control of a school board after Mr. Bobb finishes his work here. The inference is that Detroit's mayor should oversee the schools. We've debated the merits of that here before.

The crux of the column is Robert Thompson's 2003 offer to give $200 million to start charter high schools in Detroit--an offer that Detroit's school board rejected. Ken Cockrel says he would reject the offer if Thompson was to make it again. Bing says he would take it. Riley seems to favor Bing's position. I think I do, too.

What do you think? Are the schools the single most important challenge/opportunity before the new mayor? Even more important than economic development and public safety/service?