Thomas Pedroni, a professor at Wayne State University, argues that Governor Whitmer is in over her head in her efforts to direct the future of Benton Harbor schools.
She doesn’t even have legal authority to take charge of the district, he writes.
He writes:
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is in over her head in Benton Harbor Area Schools. Suddenly, though, our fledgling governor is waking up to the reality that she is alienating the very demographic — black and progressive voters — who just seven months ago propelled her to the state’s highest office.
Earlier this month community educational advocates from predominately black districts across the state gathered in Benton Harbor to express support for the district’s families, encouraging the BHAS elected board to remain steadfast in its refusal to endorse the governor’s “proposal.” They highlighted the harm inflicted by previous state strong-arming in Inkster, Buena Vista, Highland Park, Muskegon Heights, Saginaw, Detroit and Albion. Many reserved special animus for a governor who had campaigned on a promise to buoy education and protect local communities from the type of state meddling engaged in by her gubernatorial predecessors.
Lost in all this, and apparently lost even on the governor herself, is the question of from where her authority to do any of the things she is threatening actually derives. While BHAS is currently a party to a cooperative agreement negotiated with the state, the state partner in that agreement is the Michigan Department of Education, not Whitmer. The State Board of Education and interim Superintendent Sheila Alles, who directs MDE, have already declared that no dramatic changes should take place in Benton Harbor without the locally elected board at the helm all the way from design to execution.
While former Gov. Rick Snyder had some leverage over the district via a consent agreement inked with BHAS in 2014, the state treasurer ended that agreement in November 2018, declaring the financial emergency over. Whitmer has threatened to dissolve the district entirely if her demand to close the high school is not met, yet the only legal way for this to happen would be for MDE to work with Treasury in documenting a new financial emergency, just seven months after the district exited this status while under a cooperative agreement that put the state in sole control of the district.
Not only would this take considerable time and legal gymnastics — it would also pose even greater political peril for the governor, as she would need to invoke the rightfully hated emergency manager law implicated in the poisoning of Flint’s water and the further degradation of the Detroit Public Schools.
Neither the state nor the local board could effectively manage the academic and financial crisis in Benton Harbor (or for that matter in many other low-income, predominately African-American districts) because the crisis is not primarily a crisis of management.
Rather, it is a crisis deeply embedded in state education policies — policies that if left unchanged will continue to rip apart and undermine predominately black and low-income districts across the state.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Pedroni is right on the betrayal Whitmer had done to the voters of Michigan and that she also lacks authority to abolish school districts. Given her bullying threat- close your high school or I will shut down your whole district- it is clear that she should not ever have that authority. The Michigan Constitution gives power over K-12 education to the state Board of Education. They need to be more assertive in telling the Governor to stop educational abuse.
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Close the charters that stole the funding for years.
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“Many reserved special animus for a governor who had campaigned on a promise to buoy education and protect local communities from the type of state meddling engaged in by her gubernatorial predecessor”
Some people are starting to see through DINOS like Whitmer (And Newsom in California who stacked the charter reform committee with charter acolytes) who campaign on one thing to get elected and then do the opposite.
Not everyone is as dumb as these politicians think we all are.
Ironically, the really dumb ones are people like Whitmer who just put herself in the same class as Rick Snyder (whom the EPA classifies as toxic waste) and alienated the very people whose votes she will need to get reelected.
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Authority is granted, power is taken. Whitmer is taking power. Who’s going to stop her? She may be (sort of) backing down now, but she’ll be back for more.
Many on the left tend to assume that it’s only the Republicans who take power and we breathe a sign of relief and let down our guard when Democrats get elected. Experience is proving that that is folly.
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We agree again.
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And perhaps what is as troubling is when that dynamic is used as an excuse for inaction on the left. Excuse (authority) being the operative word. And thus not one banker went top jail, not even in the LIBOR. scandal. Snyder may(!) only now be facing some consequences for the assault on Flint.
The right who bemoan the overreach of Government, never misses an opportunity to seize more power when in control.
But when a Democrat fails to live up to their promises,perhaps it is time to ask whose pocket are they in. Do people just fundamentally change their beliefs within six months or is it more likely she never believed what she was saying.
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Dienne, I think the issue is more complicated and insidious than simply giving or getting power.
Twenty years of bipartisan collaboration on “school reform” has led most people to think that the only way to fix a low scoring school is to close it. The punitive test-and-punish regime of the Bush-Obama era has crushed any divergent thinking among politicians who never thought much about how to help schools or about the flaws of using standardized tests as a measure of school, teachers, and students.
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“. . .about the flaws of using standardized tests as a measure of school, teachers, and students.”
Those aren’t flaws. . .
They are invalidities, absurdities and falsehoods along with being unethical, unjust and damning to the children (through lost opportunities to learn in a most propitious fashion.)
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“Over her head,” indeed. Michigan is fortunate to have the insights and the expertise of Tom Pedroni in walking us through this power grab by Governor Whitmer, and she deserves the whiplash of a community that is fighting to keep its highschool and school district. But more then that, fighting against a market and testing model that accerbates issues of race and economics, and provides growing opportunities for affluent school districts such as Forest Hills where Whitmer graduated or the twin city, right across a narrow river from Benton Harbor. The forces of sort and select, test and punish, segregate and isolate serve as proxies for “equity” that both Republican and Democrats (even inciuding labor unions) have bough intot–neither party seems to be immune to and there are clues that not even the presidential candidates get it. The logical extension of this model is divestment, not investment. It is clear that when there are such stark differences in school funding, personal incomes, and poverty rates (which has exploded since 2000), the quick fix of charters is an insult to the community and a major policy distraction to addressing the bad policies of the past, and the needed ev idenced policies of the future. My personal stake in Benton Harbor is as a former BH teacher, administrator and director of desegregation. I continue to believe what Whitmer calls “bold” is a charade, a slight of hand and the path of least resistence. What is bold is to implement Brown v Board of Education, act on the racial and economic data we have by the tons, distrup the practices of caste, and build on richly resourced schools and commuinity centers, and inclusionary housing. Now that is bold and that is something within the power framework that Whitmer campaigned on and Benton Harbor voters thought they were getting.
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