The truth emerges…

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts announced this morning that he’s stepping down as EM when his contract expires later this month. He said, in his mind, the crisis is over and the DPS is on its way to being financially stable.

Roberts said something else, however, that shocked those who were present. He told them that his instructions when he took the job were to “blow up the district and dismantle it”.

Click through for more.

The fight to reclaim our state in 2014 starts TODAY

Today Michigan, the birthplace of the labor movement, becomes the 24th Right to Work state in the USA. It’s also the day that PA 436, the Emergency Manager law Republicans passed to thwart the wishes of Michigan voters, goes into effect. PA 436 transforms all Emergency Financial Managers to Emergency Managers (EMs), giving them powers above and beyond financial matters as they are the sole rulers of the schools and municipalities over which they have complete power.

Much more after the jump.

The country is waking up to what’s happening in Michigan

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a civil rights complaint over the use of Emergency Managers in the Detroit Public Schools. The complaint alleges that black and brown students are being singled out for takeover of their school systems while kids in majority white districts facing similar financial problems aren’t similarly impacted. It also claims that black and brown students face discipline that their white counterparts do not.

More after the jump.

Republicans punishing schools for 100% legal union contracts

This week, Detroit Public School teachers ratified a new union contract that staves off the impact of a new Right to Work law that goes into effect tomorrow. While the contract doesn’t give much to the teachers, it at least provides them with continued collective bargaining rights into the future.

With this action, the DPS now joins at least 40 other schools and five universities that face punitive action from Michigan Republicans who seek to deny them and some cities critical funding in a childish act of retribution.

Details and commentary after the jump.

It just goes on and on and on and on Lots of news to cover today. Make sure you click through to the jump page if you’re reading this from the front page of Eclectablog. Stand Up For Democracy coalition delivers 226,637 petition signaturesYesterday, the Stand Up For Democracy coalition and Michigan Forward delivered well over the 160,304 signatures needed […]

Historic Detroit treasures lost in rush to save money Eric T. Campbell has a fine piece up at The Michigan Citizen where he talks about the loss of Detroit’s historic school buildings. The Detroit Public School Emergency Managers Robert Bobb and, now, Roy Roberts, don’t appear interested in saving these historic buildings. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. […]

There aren’t too many people in Michigan more emphatic that we need to repeal Public Act 4 – Michigan’s Emergency Manager law – more than I am. But THIS is just an absurd waste of time. The Michigan Supreme Court will decide whether the office of emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools should be declared vacant because of a delay […]

There’s no debate over whether or not there are problems with the Detroit Public School system. It’s a decades-old problem made worse by a dwindling city population, higher-than-ever poverty levels and, in some cases, malfeasance, corruption and outright criminal activity by some. Although they are improving with respect to school attendance, Detroit still has big problems in that regard, too. […]

THIS is obscene: City fire marshal investigators plan to inspect every Detroit Public Schools classroom after receiving complaints this week about overcrowded classes with more than 50 students. Detroit Fire Department representatives met Thursday with district officials to determine the maximum number of students for every classroom in the district, said Assistant Fire Marshal Osric Wilson. The fire marshal issued […]

This past week, John Covington was hired by the state of Michigan to oversee a collection of underperforming schools in the state. The new group, the Education Achievement Authority (EAA), will focus its efforts on improving failing schools around Michigan. In his new position, Covington may make as much as $1.5 million per year over 4 years if he meets […]

Remember me writing about how Northville, Michigan teachers were being threatened by the imposition of an Emergency Manager as they moved into contract talks? This scenario was entirely predictable. The latest call for an emergency manager in Metro Detroit is coming from an unlikely place — the affluent Northville Public Schools. Stalled contract negotiations between administrators and employees have school […]