60 students per class

[ARon]

I read about this a couple months ago but never thought it would happen...only in Detroit.

The state of Michigan approved a plan for Detroit to close about half of its public schools and increase the average size of high-school classrooms to 60 students over the next four years to eliminate a $327 million deficit.

The plan was submitted in January by Robert Bobb, Detroit Public Schools' emergency financial manager, as a last-ditch scenario if the district couldn't find new revenue sources, which it hasn't so far. Final approval came after Mike Flanagan, the state superintendent of public instruction, cleared Mr. Bobb's initial plan with some new requirements, including that the district not file for bankruptcy protection during Mr. Bobb's remaining months in office.

The state approved the plan in a Feb. 8 letter, which the Detroit public-schools district released Monday.

Mr. Bobb said the deep cuts were necessary if the district hoped to be solvent again without additional state aid. But he said the strategy was ultimately ill-advised because it will likely drive even more students away, depriving the district of needed state funds, which Michigan apportions on the basis of enrollment.

"This is the route we're forced to take under state law," Steven Wasko, Detroit Public Schools' assistant superintendent for communications, said Monday. "However we continue to look for longer-term plans so we can avoid this."

Mr. Bobb is now moving to shrink the district to 72 schools from 142, as enrollment is expected to decline to 58,570 students by 2014 from about 73,000 students today.

Mr. Bobb was appointed emergency financial manager for the district two years ago to help close what was then a $218 million deficit, and moved quickly to close schools and root out waste. But the deficit deepened during his tenure, weighed down by salary, pension and health-care obligations. The longtime municipal manager said that without the cuts and cost-savings measures he has made since 2009, the district would face a deficit of more than $500 million today.

Meanwhile, many of his efforts to restructure the district's academics and finances were derailed by clashes with unions and with the elected school board, which recently won a court fight to control academics and select the next superintendent.

Anthony Adams, the chairman of the school board, didn't respond Monday to a request for comment. The school board has sought an infusion of funds from the state and an end to outside control of the district.

Mr. Bobb has agreed to stay a few more months beyond his appointed term, through the end of June. A spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said Monday that he was considering appointing another emergency manager to succeed Mr. Bobb, which would keep the elected board of education largely sidelined on financial matters for the near future.

Organized labor is fighting back. The Detroit Federation of Teachers called for an emergency lobbying day Tuesday in Lansing, the state capital, to protest bills granting emergency financial managers broad power over cities and school districts in financial crisis. Under those bills, emergency managers could toss out union contracts, dissolve school boards and set wage and benefit levels without collective bargaining. Mr. Bobb is generally supportive of the bills, said Mr. Wasko, the assistant superintendent.

Calls to union officials weren't immediately returned Monday.

State Approves Detroit Schools' Cuts - WSJ.com


Insane. It's sad.

 

[ill-matic]

wow, shits disgusting.

 

[Chronic]

How'd they get a $327 million deficit?

 

[vg4030]

How'd they get a $327 million deficit?

Its pretty effed here.
It mainly because of unemployment in general, and corruption in the public school system. There are more and more people claiming welfare and not enough funds. Also the shitty management by Kwame and other officials has really screwed the city.

Its odd, I live 40 miles from the D and its like a different world in Ann Arbor

 

[Synful*Luv]

It's extremely sad... I met someone recently that moved from the Detroit area.. She complained frequently about the lack of options to purchase groceries. Apparently there were relatively no grocery stores and the few places to purchase food didn't really have fresh food options. I know it's off topic, but it's still sad and helps with the bigger picture.. that city is dying. But what happens to the people who still live there? I'm usually not a fan of gov't intervention.. but this seems like as good a time as any for the federal gov't to jump in and help out.

Chronic:
I'm not sure, but i'm wondering if their school system is funded the same as the ones here in IL. Here, high schools, middle schools and elementary schools are funded mostly by property taxes. Property taxes are high or low depending on the neighborhood and the income of the residents. SO, rich people have nice expensive houses in expensive neighborhoods and have great school systems. The opposite applies for poor people in low-income neighborhoods. Relatively no property taxes means no school funds. In which case, the property taxes drop as the neighborhoods decline.. meaning less and less money. Detroit would've been borrowing money to fund the basics.. leaving the immense deficit.

 

[Jokerman]

How'd they get a $327 million deficit?

Recession. Virtually all cities in the US have a budget deficit. And all states. Michigan has almost a $2 billion deficit. High unemployment. Less jobs = less taxes to pay for the budget, among other things. And cities are the last to recover from a recession, not that the recession is over yet.

 

[Little Skittle]

I'm actually living in Madison, WI right now so this article terrifies me even more. I'm about 3 blocks from the state capitol, and I don't know how much national coverage this is getting, but the protests here are HUGE. 60 kids a class is ridiculous...most k-12 schools are around 20-30 right? That's between a 100% and 200% increase in every classroom. $327 million is a pretty big deficit, but there are other ways to fix that then to cut public school funding. The Wisconsin deficit is currently $137 million and to fix that, Gov. Walker is proposing a bill that will make state employees pay more into their pension and health care, but he's also trying to essentially take away the right for collective bargaining. To put in perspective how fucked up that is, the $137 million could be fixed if every adult in Wisconsin paid a one-time, $32 fee. Or, the government could tax every can of soda and beer by 5 cents for the next 4 months, and the deficit would be gone. Instead, he's going to take away basic rights from tens of thousands of people.

Edit: Taking away the collective bargaining would essentially not allow for "organized labor" to fight back, as your article put it. And also, the follow up to this bill is supposed to cut 1 BILLION dollars for public education. So essentially, Wisconsin would be cutting 3 times as much as Michigan, and teachers wouldn't be able to fight it. Frightening.

 

[Flipmo]

Man, Detroit has fallen since the glory days of Motor City... Shame....

 

[Synful*Luv]

@Little: Yeah it's preferred to be in the low 20s. Really good schools are in the high teens. It used to be that 30 kids per class was considered waay too many.

I believe IL has a deficit of somewhere about $15 billion. No idea how they are going to fix that. So far, they were targeting programs that were publicly funded for the mentally ill and disabled. SMH... not sure how in the world it even gets to this point before someone realizes there's a huge issue and things need to change.

 

[Flipmo]

The soda can tax has even been suggested here at one point, it probably won't pass, and it's not that people aren't willing to take pay a bit more for a can of soda. The issue is if the money from will reach the intended destination, whether it be for the construction of a new building, or helping out the deficit. I think it's like that everywhere in North America, hell, maybe I should just say the world.

 

[S O F I]

Not to forget that the Detroit Public School District has been failing its students for quite some time. Every year they're among the lowest in graduation rates among public schools in the country.