Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday night in his State of the State address that the Detroit Public Schools are in a crisis and the “time to act is now.”
“The Detroit schools are in need of a transformational change,” he told lawmakers.
Snyder says he wants the current $1,100 per student being spent to service debt to be shifted to give classroom teachers the resources they need.
Detroit teachers say working conditions — including overcrowding and insufficient maintenance — brought about by starved city and state budgets are hurting students’ education.
Snyder, in a posting on his website, said he will work with the Legislature to reform Detroit Public Schools. “The state needs to ensure that a complete failure to educate schoolchildren never again happens to this extent in one of Michigan’s districts,” he told lawmakers.
The beleaguered school system has said it will need significant dollars from the Legislature to address its massive debts.
Last week, thousands of students stayed home over three days as teachers staged what has been termed a “sick-out,” an off-the-books strike by teachers who called in sick to their schools in protest over conditions, according to Steve Conn, the labor leader who organized the protest.
Conn said he expects another “sick-out” on Wednesday, the same day President Barack Obama is in town for a major international auto show. It is unclear how many schools might be affected.
A proposal introduced last week in the Legislature would create a second school district within the city that assumes control over all of its schools and students, while leaving the current Detroit Public School system with only the district’s debt, according to author state Sen. Goeff Hansen.
The Detroit system is burdened with an estimated $515 million in debt and is facing insolvency as early as April, according to the school district’s emergency manager, Darnell Earley.
“It’s a high priority. It’s an emergency situation,” Hansen said.
About $7,400 is allocated per student each year. But close to $1,200 of that per student amount is going to pay down debt and legacy costs in the city school system rather than heading to the classroom, according to Hansen.
Under the proposal, the debt isolated in the Detroit Public School system would continue to be paid off by revenue from city taxpayers but would give the state room to inject the additional funding into the new school system.
