Gov. Rick Snyder (R-MI)
Detroit's elected school board doesn't have much power these days, with the city's public schools under the control of an emergency manager appointed by the state. That doesn't mean they can't try to make things better, though, and that's what the board is doing by filing a federal civil rights complaint,
asking the Justice Department to launch an investigation into a series of allegations:
They include misspending public funds, violating the rights of special education students, and a general “pattern of discrimination, retaliation, [and] creating a hostile educational environment,” according to the complaint. [...]
Davis said that Detroit’s students, parents and taxpayers have suffered under sustained state “mismanagement.” The state has largely run the district for 12 of the past 15 years, and is currently under its fourth emergency manager.
Under state control, the district ran up most of its current $2 billion in debt, much of it used on no-bid contracts to upgrade facilities that were later abandoned or given away to the state-run Education Achievement Authority, Davis said. [...]
The complaint also accuses Gov. Snyder of using the state’s emergency manager law to strip voting rights and power from local elected officials in some of the state’s majority-black school districts, creating “two separate and unequal school systems” across the state. It alleges a larger effort to “dismantle and privatize” DPS and other districts under state control.
Gosh, four emergency managers controlling Detroit's schools for 12 out of 15 years ... it's almost like there are structural problems that go beyond the "Detroit just isn't responsible enough to manage itself" message (with its attendant race-baiting) from Republicans like Snyder. But putting the city's schools under the sway of the Republican privatization agenda is definitely no way to improve public education for all of Detroit's kids. Then again, that's not the intent.