Snyder to Reveal Details of Detroit Schools Bailout Plan

“Those retirement liabilities, if there wasn’t a Detroit Public Schools, would be spread across all the other school districts and cost them a lot more money”, Snyder said during a news conference at his Detroit office, where he updated reporters almost six months after first unveiling his plan. “We’re not seeing the results these children deserve”.

That could be a tough sell in the state Legislature, which just past year approved $194.8 million for the “grand bargain” that helped Detroit emerge from bankruptcy. “If you look at the criteria we’re asking from the Detroit Education Commission is to basically be agnostic whether it’s a charter school or a Detroit community district school”, Snyder said.

Snyder says that debt could be paid off over 10 years using the $70 million a year the millage brings in. That includes $100 million for “additional investments and working capital”, Snyder said, and another $100 million in accumulated operating losses after June 30.

The governor’s proposal- parts of which were released earlier this year – involves splitting DPS into two entities and implementing a voluntary common enrollment system for schools across the city. “It can also stabilize, and provide a new foundation for predictable and stable long-term financing and support for schools in Detroit”. That person would have the power to open and close academically failing schools operated by DPS, charter schools and the Education Achievement Authority, the state’s district for the lowest performing schools.

Under the plan, Darnell Earley, who became the fourth emergency manager of DPS since 2009 in January, would remain in place until his 18-month term ends in mid-2016 to supervise the financial matters of the “old” DPS.

The five-member Detroit Education Commission would be able to hire an “education manager” who would be charged with closing schools with academic achievement tests in the bottom 5 percent of all Michigan schools for at least three years.