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It's Time to Declare an EmergencyBy arlanmeekhof, Section News
(Welcome back to RightMichigan, Representative... and Amen!)
Currently, DPS has a $400 million budget deficit. This is due to severe financial mismanagement, corruption, and the fact that families are removing their children from the Public Schools because of their inability to provide effective education. An attorney representing DPS has admitted that there is reason to believe there was some corruption, citing $46 million that was paid out by one department within the school district that was not apparently used to purchase goods or services. The FBI is currently investigating this and other allegations of corruption.
I think that it's about time that we declare an Education Emergency. The purpose of declaring this emergency will have three goals. First, we need to take drastic steps to make sure we are providing effective education to the children of Detroit. Second, Governor Granholm needs to put DPS into State receivership. This means that the State Department of Education would temporarily appoint a financial manager for DPS who would have the final say on all financial decisions. Finally, we need to root out the corrupt and incompetent administration officials so that this tragedy does not again occur.
In order to accomplish the first goal the legislature needs to enact immediately and remove all barriers to further charter school expansion. Charter schools in Detroit have been widely successful while the Public Schools have largely been a failure. Charter schools attain this success despite the fact that they receive significantly less funding than the public schools. The conclusion is an obvious one. We need to promote institutions that provide top notch education at a reduced price. The fact that there is even a shed of opposition to this makes me question the motives of the opposition. Who are they really concerned about? Certainly not the students. In order to accomplish the second and third goals action is needed by Governor Granholm and Attorney General Mike Cox. The Governor needs to force DPS into State receivership in order to prevent even more tax dollars from being doled out in the form of kickbacks. Attorney General Cox needs to join the FBI in investigating the rampant corruption and arresting the perpetrators. The fact that the situation with Detroit Schools has received little media coverage on the West side of the state leads me to believe that many people see this as Detroit's problem. It certainly is Detroit's problem, but more and more this is also becoming a West side problem. Money wasted in Detroit means there is less available for Ottawa County schools. Almost 10% of Michigan's population lives in the City of Detroit. Michigan's economy is centered in Detroit. A significant portion of the tax money paid by citizens from the West side of the State ends up in Detroit. Never before has the saying "As goes Detroit, so goes Michigan" been so true. How will this state recover a recession and prevent recurrences of recessions if we can't even educate the children of our most populous city? How are we going to lower our record unemployment rates if almost half of the students in DPS drop out of high school? The unfortunate answer is that we won't. It's time to stop letting down the children of Detroit. It's time to declare and Education Emergency. It's time for some real education reform.
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It's Time to Declare an Emergency | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden)
It's Time to Declare an Emergency | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden)
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The State of Michigan has had and continues to have significant financial problems. This is why it is baffling to me why the Granholm administration continues to pretend everything is OK in the Detroit Public School system.