Koby Levin of Chalkbeat reports that a study of the state takeover of Detroit’s public schools–which lasted for 15 years–was “a costly mistake.”
The state was supposed to solve intractable problems that elected school officials in Detroit could not.
It made things worse, according to a newly released report on the 15 years during which the Detroit school district was largely controlled by state-appointed officials.
The study, which was commissioned by the current school board, found a pattern of “startling mismanagement” in academic and financial matters whose consequences continue to weigh on the district’s future.
While some had hoped that the report would eventually lead to a lawsuit against the state, that seems unlikely. Instead, it provides a 172-page confirmation of what many Detroiters have argued for years: that installing state officials in place of the elected school board wasn’t enough to make the district’s problems disappear.
“The legacy of emergency management coupled with the continuing effect of inequitable school funding, will inevitably cause the District to hit a ceiling and impede its current progress toward a complete turnaround of traditional public education in Detroit,” the seven board members wrote in a statement in response to the report.
As state officials closed dozens of schools, they failed to adequately maintain the properties — “a costly mistake,” the report found, “as many of the vacant buildings have been stripped and/or vandalized.”
Tom Watkins, who was state superintendent from 2001 to 2005, said there was little hope of improving the district’s financial situation simply through effective management — not without solving underlying issues with declining enrollmentand Michigan’s school funding structure.
“It’s like trying to bail out a sinking yacht with a thimble,” he said.
The state threw everything it could think of at the struggling district–emergency management, charters galore–but not the funding needed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
Probably going to be the same mistakes Texas is getting ready to make as they prepare to take of Houston ISD
yes: and after a while surely they can not be called mistakes, but a very intentional pigheaded abuse
From Ed Choice – “Is anyone trying to propose an educational choice program in Michigan now? Yes: The Mackinac Center (Koch-funded) and the Michigan Catholic Conference continue to promote private school choice through a constitutional amendment”.
VoterVoice.net, associated with the Catholic Advocacy Network, posted 1-25-2019, “Mich. Catholic Conference celebrated National School Choice Week in the Capitol- Lansing”.
The right wing has a media spokesperson, Detroit News writer, Ingrid Jacques. The headlines of her articles reflect her bias. Her bias was also shown in an article about the private school Supreme Court case, Espinoza. She exclusively quoted the right wing. From the Superintendent of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Detroit, “We shouldn’t have to choose between our faith and good schooling.” fyi, nor should taxpayers have to pay for your parishes when we want non-denominational public education. And, your claim about good schooling has as much credibility as the denials about widespread priest abuse.
Theocracy and oligarchy, inseparable, destroys American values and freedom.
The last voucher referendum in Michigan was funded by Dick and Betsy DeVos. Overwhelmingly defeated. Might go down by bigger numbers now that the negative results of choice are known.
This is just so WRONG.
State takeovers are a power/money grab, plain and simple. They are the product, most recently, of data-based test-&punish policies efficiently identifying the poorest performers in the state – inevitably the poorest districts – inevitably majority-minority population.
In most cases, these inner city areas have long been in a state of socio-economic turmoil: the hardest-hit by mfg decline dating back to ‘70’s & before, leaving those too poor to move in situ. Next step, govt gradually disinvests, first shutting down the public transp that could have been a lifeline for displaced clerical & mech et al workers to commute to next-wave corp facilities established in the outer ring or nearby towns, while eliminating a host of transp-related jobs [NJ once had bus routes connecting many central & NE cities; today you can’t get there from here except by car]. Inhabitants either go on the dole or move to cheaper states w/some job oppty’s; crime flourishes; school enrollment decreases to the poorest common denominator; qualified teachers flee.
Into the chaos step the state-takeover mavens [“emergency mgrs”]. What are they there for? It’s the classic Shock Doctrine set-up. They are there to pick the carcass clean, to squeeze the laggards into dwindling turf, to push them out to some other region to be somebody else’s problem. In short, to gentrify. That this is done under the guise of improving ed oppty for our poorest—our blackest/ brownest—is a disgusting irony & a blot on our nation.
The Detroit News’ Deputy Editorial Page Editor writes highly partisan, right wing opinion pieces including one about school choice. She attended a public university, the gift that citizens sacrifice to give to students so that they have an affordable, quality option that is not legacy admission. Michigan State University, site of the John Arnold-funded ERA education center, conferred the editor’s journalism degree. For those unfamiliar with MSU, it’s the school where former governor Engler was president and where Olympic gymnasts sued the school’s doctor, Nassar.
The editor’s undergrad school was the very conservative Hillsdale.
A Hillsdale College in Michigan was in the news for a scandal/death on campus. The daughter-in-law of the then president of the school, was found dead and some thought she shot herself. Questions linger. Reportedly, she alleged a 19- year affair between herself and her father-in-law, the college president. Family values and hypocrisy- it’s the Republican way.