9486 in the collection
Detroit Deal Brokering Over Mayor Control of Schools Crumbles
Ohanian Comment: You don't have to live in Detroit to have a stake in what's happening. Power broking over who controls large urban districts is playing out across the country.
DETROIT -- A few minutes into his meeting last Tuesday with former colleague and self-described friend Rick Johnson, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was the target of a blistering tirade.
The state House speaker, who had a week earlier helped to broker a deal that would allow more charter schools in the city and would give the mayor more oversight of the district, was now faced with the loss of the mayor's support and the deal's collapse.
"This is your deal. You wanted this," Johnson huffed, recalling a Sept. 4 meeting Kilpatrick took part in with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Senate Majority Leader Kenneth Sikkema and Detroit Public Schools Chief Executive Kenneth Burnley. That meeting closed with the mayor's support, according to Johnson, Sikkema and Granholm.
But as the trio and Detroiters have learned in the days since, Kilpatrick has become increasingly unclear about his stance on charter schools, district governance and what role he wants to play in the education of Detroit students.
The mayor -- despite every other party saying the contrary -- insists that he had no discussions about the legislation and did not support the bill that is now stalled in Lansing.
At a Sept. 23 news conference, Kilpatrick said: "I never signed off on anything, I never even had a conversation with anyone."
He added that he had spoken only with the governor and Burnley about the issue.
The next day, Kilpatrick said: "I haven't spoken with Rick Johnson since March."
On Monday, the mayor acknowledged attending the Sept. 4 meeting, but he maintained that his only commentary then was to encourage Granholm to veto the bill. A short conversation with Johnson that same day was not tied to the schools bill, the mayor said.
"I've clearly been involved in conversations, but not to the degree of what's been said," Kilpatrick said. "I have other things to do than to cut a backroom deal in Lansing."
What others are calling the mayor's shift in his stance -- Sikkema said Kilpatrick "reneged; he went somewhere else" -- came about around the same time that teachers and organized labor leaders mobilized one of the most significant protests in recent history. The event Thursday in Lansing drew more than 3,000 protesters, largely Detroit teachers, and forced Burnley to cancel classes.
Though the Detroit Federation of Teachers called off a rally planned for Monday, about 50 protesters marched around the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center anyway.
"I think the mayor is waiting for us to demobilize, and then he's going to push again for the legislation," said Steve Conn, a math teacher at Cass Technical High School and frequent activist.
Johnson and others said they were dumbfounded by what they saw as a change in the mayor's position. Granholm was chastised for lacking the tenacity to stand up to the mayor, and Republican legislators can claim no victory on charter school legislation. Burnley, who publicly announced support for a proposal by philanthropist Robert Thompson to establish schools chartered by the district in Detroit, had to listen as Kilpatrick noted the teachers' right to protest.
Granholm "negotiated with the mayor on the assumption that he represented and was communicating with the citizens of Detroit," said Elizabeth Boyd, the governor's spokeswoman. "She had a deal with the legislative leadership; that deal was predicated on the deal she had with the mayor. Apparently there was either a change of heart or a misunderstanding on the part of the mayor. There was also a change of heart on the part of the Senate, reflected in the provisions they put in the draft compromise bill."
Not only did the mayor plan to support the bill, but he also had agreed to round up votes, Sikkema said.
"I think the problem from my perspective is that the mayor went from 'Hey, I'm going to get some votes' to really opposing it because of the political firestorm created by the teachers down in Detroit," Sikkema said. "By him doing that and kind of participating in that just created tremendous political problems for the governor, where she was looking at any reason possible to get out of this."
Thompson is waiting for the outcome of the legislative process before deciding whether to look elsewhere to charter schools, said his representative, Kelly Rossman-McKinney.
Kilpatrick has long been a proponent of charter schools. He helped craft, with former Gov. John Engler, charter schools legislation that failed in December. He taught at a charter school, the Marcus Garvey Academy, and his two sons are enrolled in one.
The mayor has repeatedly said that he believes the academies can be beneficial to the city if chartered by the district, but he is now saying any decision about education must come from a town hall meeting scheduled for Wednesday. The session will bring together 75 parents, educators and business and community leaders assembled by the mayor and community organizations.
Kilpatrick has noted that other big city mayors have more authority over their school districts and have found success. Kilpatrick also pledged in January to get more actively involved with the district.
"I believe 100 percent, the mayor has to have a role" in public school reform, Kilpatrick said. "What that role is I think should be further defined. The mayor can't be hands-off in schools."
Those who spoke of the Sept. 4 meeting, for which Kilpatrick brought several members of his administration, said it was the mayor who proposed having an elected board with a strong chief executive and more authority for him, the same model that was proposed in the bill now stalled in Lansing.
Kilpatrick has since said that he wants a separate bill to address whether Detroit schools have an elected or appointed board and what powers that group should have.
"We're working down here," Kilpatrick said. "The one thing I didn't want to get into is the Lansing back- and-forth."
— Darci McConnell
Mayor is unclear on charter schools
Detroit News
2003-09-30
http://www.detnews.com/2003/schools/0309/30/d01-285241.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
