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9486 in the collection
DPS board fights Bobb
By Diane Bukowski
DETROIT — The State of Michigan has kept a 10-year stranglehold on the Detroit Public Schools under both Governors John Engler and Jennifer Granholm, with the ultimate goal of finally dismantling the district.
The current series of 29 school closings and reorganizations, which will cost the district $22 million according to DPS facilities head Mark Schrupp, 2,500 lay-offs, lucrative contracts to wealthy white-owned corporations like Compuware and Ohio-based transportation companies, and the elimination of the Children’s Museum are nothing but business as usual, practiced since the first state takeover in 1999.
Most recently, DPS Czar Robert Bobb announced that 17 of the district’s 22 high schools will be turned over to four private management firms, allegedly to boost student achievement and graduation rates. A total of 40 schools will be turned over eventually. The cost of these contracts has not been made public.
The disempowered Detroit Board of Education voted unanimously July 14 to seek a court order overturning the schools management plan, using a pro bono attorney because Bobb must approve finances for all lawsuits.
Also under state consideration are a possible mayoral takeover of the district embodied in House Bills 5804 and 5805, sponsored by State Rep. Lamar Lemmons (D-Detroit) and the elimination of teaching certificates for striking teachers (H.B. 5150), sponsored by State Rep. Jimmy Womack (D-Detroit) who served as Board president for three years.
Bus attendants gone
"The lay-off of 240 school bus attendants, who serve 5,000 special ed students is an outrage, in a school district that is 98 percent Black with a newly-elected Black President," Keith January, President of AFSCME Local 345, told the Detroit Board of Education July 9. "Half of the special ed students the attendants look after are in wheelchairs, and the rest are otherwise physically and mentally disabled. We deserve the same bus service that DPS has been getting since 1968."
In a letter to Bobb June 10, January said that a Transportation Committee was formed in 2002 after the accidental death of Special Needs Student Dolisia Dozier, and has continued to advocate for bus attendants on both public and private special needs coaches. Bobb had said the lay-offs would save the district $5.8 million.
Minister Malik Shabazz spoke at the meeting to say sources within the district's IT department have confirmed that employees of Vision IT, a minority-owned firm, are now being replaced by Compuware employees.
"They did a lousy job when the 1999 takeover board contracted with them," said Shabazz, "and they’ll do a lousy job for a lot of money now."
Shabazz also said Compuware management employees are racist and mistreat Black DPS workers.
Subsitute teacher Frances Billingsley spoke out passionately against Bob'’s latest plans.
"How can he justify getting rid of substitute teachers while he lays off teachers?" she asked. "I said a long time ago that the district should file a lawsuit against the state. They're building a new Mumford High School, but it's going to be run as a charter school by Bob Thompson. They're bringing consultants and other people who never worked for DPS and know nothing about our children. How are we going to pay these people all this money for what they don’t know?"
Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson, while saying his union opposes charter schools because they don't work, appeared unconcerned about the school closings.
"The closings are necessary," he said. "Most of the classes are not oversized. The Eli Broad and Skillman Foundations, while they support charter schools, also pump money into the district."
Contract cost secret
The contracts with the four management companies, the bus companies and Compuware have not been disclosed to the board since DPS schools czar Robert Bobb has taken control of all contracting and financing. However, even under the previous state takeover, former DPS CEO Kenneth Burnley presented contracts he had authorized to the board.
The board's disempowerment under Granholm flies in the face of the will of Detroit voters, who voted to return the district to their control in 2005, and then overwhelmingly defeated Proposal E in 2006, which would have given exclusive control of contracts to a CEO appointed by Detroit's Mayor, in the same fashion that former CEO's under the 1999 takeover controlled contracts.
In 2007, Detroit voters also called on the state to forgive a $210 million long-term debt incurred under former CEO Kenneth Burnley in 2004. According to board members, that debt has now ballooned to $300 million and is taking $20 million a month from state per-pupil spending.
Granholm sabotaged chances of having a progressive elected board in 2004 when she appointed a 150 member transition team headed by the Rev. Wendell Anthony. The team included former takeover opponents. Team members were not allowed to run for the board, and Anthony announced they could not address the Deficit Elimination Plan, as reported in The Michigan Citizen at the time.
Instead corporate-funded politicians like Jimmy Womack, DTE executive Joyce Hayes-Giles, who recently resigned, and Dr. Carla Scott, who ran with a pro-charter school slate, gained control.
Board took state's agenda
The deficit elimination plan carried out by the elected board mandated the ultimate dismantling of the district. It included an unprecedented series of 110 school closings and staff cutbacks which would leave only eight out of 26 DPS high schools operating in the district by 2010, and opened the way for a virtual Katrina of charter schools, as The Michigan Citizen also reported.
Granholm and Bobb have pushed for the basically unregulated and limited curriculum charter schools, which deprive DPS of at least $7,500 per student and have no elected boards to watch the money. President, Barack Obama also supports charter school conversions, which were the ultimate goal of former President George Bush’s controversial "No Child Left Behind" program.
The board also voted for a "consent agreement" with the state last year which opened the door to the new state takeover, and was supported by members of several community groups. All but Board member Marie Thornton are now acting like the fox who gave a snake a ride over a river and was bitten.
"You knew I was a snake," the snake told the fox.
Thornton has been a voice crying in the wilderness since her election, voting against many contracts and championing financial transparency for the community.
She shook her head at the July 9 meeting as board members bemoaned Bobb's actions, including his meeting with a retired bankruptcy judge to discuss possible bankruptcy for DPS.
"That's nothing but a smokescreen," she said.
Wrongful deficit
Despite Bobb's 2010 budget figures outlining $1.3 billion in revenues and $1.2 billion in expenses, he said in his executive order approving the budget, "There continues to exist a cumulative negative fund balance of $276.8 million consisting of the audited 2007-08 year end fund balance of $139.7 million and the projected unaudited 2008-09 fund balance of $137.1 million. The projected positive fund balance of $17,372,730 in the 2009-10 budget will be applied to the cumulative negative fund balance."
Therefore, Bobb claims the district still has a deficit of over $230 million. That could be wiped out by Granholm by forgiving the DPS debt to the state.
The budget uses "base figures" as adopted amounts for both revenues and expenditures and does not include either line items or $418.9 million in expected federal stimulus funding, according to a footnote.
CPA Greg Frazier, who recently won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the district calling for the disclosure of all line-item expenditures and documentation, said Bobb's budget is not surprising.
"The term 'base budget' is commonly used," he said. "It means that that is the minimum needed to operate the district. However, the lack of detail means that this is someone who doesn't want to commit to specific line items. He doesn't have to answer to the board so he just uses lump sums, then he shoots from the hip, contracting schools out and letting whatever contracts he wants. He's looking for a renewal of his contract from Granholm. His agenda has nothing to do with the children."
— Diane Bukowski
The Michigan Citizen
2009-07-19
http://www.michigancitizen.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=7577&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reop
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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