FLINT, MI — On July 20, the Mott Foundation sent shock waves through the Flint community when they announced to pull the plug on two beloved programs from the school system here. The programs provide supplemental after-school programs/tutoring and more to students. The move was triggered when four of seven Flint Community School Board members issued a verbal reprimand to Superintendent Anita Steward, who was meeting in secret with representatives of the Mott Foundation, and in particular with Ridgeway White, Mott’s CEO, giving no report to the school board. (In Flint, the superintendent is employed by the elected school board). Angry parents and staff packed the July 21, 2021 board meeting to protest the move. Unfortunately, many were duped into thinking it was the board’s action, only to find out during the course of the meeting, that the Foundation was the culprit. Two days after the contentious meeting, the Mott Foundation put the programs back in place.
Here are a couple of comments that caused the Foundation to bring the programs back.
From Flint resident Vicki Marx:
“To the four Flint school board members… Stand your ground. You are not being unreasonable in your request to have someone else in the meetings. If it was on the up and up, seems that Ridgeway White would have no problem having another person present, if for no other reason than having a witness. But being the benevolent puppeteer he is, Mr. White handles this matter by acting like a schoolyard rich kid bully, taking his ball home because he doesn’t like the way the game is played.
“Mott has got its dirty fingers and everything in Flint and it needs to stop!! Charles Stewart Mott is the man who wanted the sit downers shot in 1936. In 1976 when the Department of Health, Education and Welfare said to desegregate the schools, he abruptly canceled the community education programs leaving behind a massive fund shortfall and a rudderless educational power structure. And their money is dirty. C.S. Mott owns big sugar in southern Florida, which is responsible for the red tide poisoning the waters not only in the state but also on both coasts. Mott cares nothing for clean safe water or the children. Nothing they do is out of the goodness of their hearts. Look it up!!!”
From Flint Community School Board member Laura McIntyre
“Ridgway White and the Mott Foundation is unilaterally making a coercive move to strongarm this board and this district to relinquish their autonomy and bypass the board’s bylaws and the democratic process,” she said. “I implore the Mott Foundation to act like a community partner, not a colonial overseer.”
