Editor’s note: Elena Herrada is a member of the Detroit School Board—in exile. The elected school board has been stripped of its authority by the governor appointed Emergency Manager that serves corporate interests. — People’s Tribune
DETROIT, MI — There are 62 people in Detroit’s school board race. New legislation allows only seven board members. It allows this body only one thing: To privatize public education. All public schools would become charters. Four people can vote to charter the whole district.
This is the why so many are suddenly interested in the school board race. There are candidates who worked for the non-elected Emergency Manager, Kevyn Orr and Mike Duggan. There are many who have never attended a school board meeting. There are candidates who have been far removed from the reality of Detroit under emergency management, and from Detroit without the residency requirement for city employees that provided our tax base. People say they love Detroit Public Schools because they graduated during the era of our heyday. This is no time for nostalgia or delusions that we have control of our school district. We do not. We are under the financial review commission who answers to bankers and bondholders. They were not elected and do not have children in Detroit Public Schools.
This is why I ask for your vote. There are a small number of candidates who support public education. Many have their marching orders from Judge Rhodes, Mike Duggan, and Governor Snyder. Here is the list of those who can be trusted to defend public education and the right of equal resources to all children in Detroit: Tawanna Simpson; Ida Short. ; Reverend David Murray, Patricia Singleton, Elena Herrada, Yolanda Y. Peoples, Victor B Gibson, LaMar Lemmons, Herman Davis, John Telford
There are others but their close ties to Mike Duggan make them suspect—we do NOT want mayoral control. We cannot go the way of New Orleans, of Muskegon Heights, Inkster, or Highland Park. Please help us. Everything is at stake. This is not about personalities. This is not about political posturing. This is about keeping public schools public for Detroit children.
