http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703507804576130350340294080.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
DETROIT—Two years after his appointment as emergency financial manager for the Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb has outsourced many services, unearthed corruption and closed a number of schools.
Yet the district's mammoth deficit has continued to grow during amid the state's downturn and growing pension and debt obligations, and the city's schools are still grappling with longstanding problems, including political battles involving the state, school board and teachers' unions and a long-term exodus by students.
With weeks left in his term, Mr. Bobb has put forth some radical ideas to overhaul the system. One would split the district into two entities to help retire its debt, along the lines of the government-engineered bankruptcy of General Motors. Another would use money from a national tobacco settlement to inject $400 million into the Detroit schools and some 40 other deficit-ridden Michigan districts. A third is modeled on post-Katrina New Orleans, where a shrunken district was remade with mostly charter schools.
All would need approval by the state legislature and governor, and none appears to have much traction now. Only one has even been circulated in writing. The tobacco-settlement idea has been debated in public, but state lawmakers didn't take it up last fall, and no bill has emerged in the new legislative session.
But Mr. Bobb warns that without action, the current deficit could force Detroit Public Schools to close 100 more schools —the district now has 134—and cram an average of 62 students into each high-school classroom. In an interview, he said some in the state may hold a bias against their financially troubled biggest city.
No accountability for highly paid consultants? I thought these Broadites were the solution to all ills?
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