XIV. Governor’s Diversion of DPS Resources to Form EAA Fiscally Devastated Quality of Education for All
Detroit Students – Ongoing Harm
SUMMARY
The State’s justification for taking 15 newly remodeled schools and forming a competing school was an effort
to turn around the worst-performing schools in the state.
Snyder hired John Covington, .superintendent for the Kansas City, Mo., school district. Weeks after he left
Kansas City, the Missouri State Board of Education voted unanimously to strip the district's accreditation.
While Covington was Chancellor, former State Representative Ellen Cogen Lipton filed public document
requests that revealed irregularities in the district's internal test scores and travel spending by EAA leadership.
Enrollment dropped 25% after the EAA's first year, and MEAP scores showed most EAA students either
weren't showing improvement or were getting worse. The district lost roughly a third of its teaching staff in its
first year.
DETAILS
At a Coalition meeting on or about February of 2015, the accounting firm Ernst & Young presented their report
to the Governor, attending by video conferencing and the Coalition members on the EAA. The presenter
explained in no uncertain terms that the formation of the EAA had harmed Detroit Public School students and
only perpetuates the current situation. The Governor paid the new Chancellor almost $500,000 in benefits and
salary to lead the education of 7,800 of the poorest students in the country, some who must pay $3.00-$6.00 to
get to a school they were forced to attend. The School Board Members have asked for copies of the Ernst &
Young report as provided to the Coalition, but are told they cannot have it without filing an FOIA and paying a
fee, determined by the Emergency Manager. Previously, FOIA estimates from DPS are costs which are
burdensome on School Board members and would cause undue hardship.
Meanwhile, the EAA has not helped those students as the Governor promised it would. There have been
widespread complaints. A complainant claims an EAA student they represent received an A in Calculus on her
December report card, but she is unable to do “her times tables”. Either her grades at Pershing High School
were falsified or what is being taught in Calculus at the EAA schools is not to generally accepted standards.
Complainants cite being forced to attend the Governor’s schools and their children being taunted because the
school was inferior. Two complainants cited traffic chaos for parents dropping off their students at Marion Law
Academy where they say children are running between buses and cars which pull up to the same area at the
same time. Anyone knows that this is dangerous and that school districts outside of Detroit care for the safety
of children on school property during pick up and drop off.
Two EAA officials have been investigated for fraud.
Meanwhile, Detroit residents must pay millions more for buildings than the EEA pays to lease buildings which
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