New Authority To Oversee Detroit Public Schools
DETROIT (WWJ) - Under-performing school in Michigan will be put into a statewide authority to help improve student achievement. Governor Rick Snyder is creating the Education Achievement System which will operate the lowest performing schools in the state, beginning with Detroit in the 2012-2013 school year.
"It's a new way of doing things, in terms of creating a new authority to work with schools that are failing ... to focus of those failing schools, those bottom five percent of schools," Snyder told reporters, Monday.
"And the real question there is, how do we get new and better resources focused on the kids in those schools," the Governor said.
The group will be overseen by Detroit Public Schools' emergency manager Roy Roberts, who would be able to create special work rules for those troubled schools, with help from Eastern Michigan university, to train teachers with foundations providing the financial backing.
Roberts will also determine which schools will be included in the new system.
WWJ Newsradio 950's Ron Dewey reported DPS school board would remain intact, but without any authority.
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While board members said they were asked to meet with Roberts on Monday, they also say they were not told about the news conference.
WWJ spoke with DPS board member Carol Banks said she likes the plan on paper, but wants to see it in action.
"We'll have to wait and see how it pans out. But, currently, if they do that you have forty-five high schools that they'll take out of DPS and some other failing schools across the state of Michigan that they'll put into this district to create this new authority," Banks said.
"It's a model that's never been done. So, I don't want to say it's an experiment, but it's a model that has never been done. So, I need to see the model in full-fledge before I can say that it's something that I support," she said.
School Board member Lemar Lemons III said he is afraid the governor's plan will cause more financial problems for the district.
"I just want the district to be made solvent," Lemons told WWJ's Florence Walton. "All these plans keep putting the district further and further (in debt). And they use the fact that we're in deficit as a rationale to keep taking over. The state has had control of this district for nine of the last twelve years," Lemons said.
The authority will be funded by several philanthropic groups and foundations.
Click here to read more about the DPS Renaissance Plan.
Stay with WWJ Newsradio 950 for the latest on this story.
