Editor’s note: Elena Herrada is a member of the Detroit Public School Board ‘in exile.’
DETROIT, MI — Detroit Public Schools (DPS) have been under emergency management for six years. In that time, the elected school board has never accepted losing the right to govern that white districts in Michigan have despite the repeal of the emergency manager law, despite the District never having met the criteria laid out for takeover, financial distress and student failure.
Detroit passed a bond for construction of new buildings and repair of old schools. When the bond passed, the then Governor Jennifer Granholm sent Robert Bobb to take over the District. This would allow Lansing direct access to federal and state money intended for DPS.
Robert Bobb came in with the full support of the media, which highlighted alleged corruption and incompetence in DPS and praised the no nonsense approach to dealing with Detroit. The racism was palpable; a cursory look at the media coverage shows disdain for Black elected officials. This is even more pronounced now, in the next phase of takeover.
So much corruption has taken place in DPS with no oversight that the district will be generations recovering. During the first takeover under Governor Engler, the locally elected school board was removed and replaced by Governor Engler’s appointees, who spent the bond money and entered into contracts that the elected school board was encumbered with. There was no money left from the multi-billion dollar bond and no audit was ever done. Mike Duggan had a hand in the millions that was taken from DPS, which is why there is strong opposition to his power grab to take over the schools. The voters overwhelmingly voted against the schools being merged with the city, which is a violation of the city charter.
Currently, the elected board is resisting another removal by the governor and Duggan. We have filed federal lawsuits related to the constitutional issue of voting rights. We were told by Judge Rhodes, as he was presiding over the Detroit bankruptcy trial, that we would have to wait until the bankruptcy was over before our case could proceed to court. Before that would happen, Judge Rhodes himself would be appointed emergency manager over the schools by Governor Snyder.
The Education Task Force, a coalition of defenders of public education of all sorts—professors of education, students, parents, have organized a conference of all the districts under emergency management, the first of its kind since the state takeovers. We do not intend to step down, back away or give up.
