XXIV Summary of Disparate Treatment & Disparate Impact of State Actions
We, the elected School Board of the Detroit Public Schools relate these reports from fellow citizens as well as
our own concerns as citizens because it is our ethical, and sworn fiduciary responsibility to look after the
community, and specifically to review contracts over $50,000 that impact our schools, and the contracts and
actions of the Emergency Managers is one.
These actions of the state of Michigan and those in whom the Governor(s) have vested authority, and from
whom the Governor received advice regarding our community, were unnecessary to meet educational goals of
our district.
Many of these actions have been unethical. Some of these actions were well thought out, intentional and even
illegal. Many are negligent. Since the state began an assault on us, many of these actions and monies spent
reflect greed and an opportunity to make a profit with our tax dollars than to serve the needs of the children who
were here. There are many conflicts of interest. These actions often offered more benefit to the Emergency
Manager or another contractor, and then it offered to the students, parents, teachers, neighborhoods, those with
special needs or community as a whole. Other actions, like refusing Davis Aeronautics students lunch and
forcing them to leave the school property for food, betray parent trust, and were cruel.
DISCRIMINATION
The Detroit Public School District, the EAA and Charters receive Federal funding.
Detroit has an 83.4% black population, the highest concentration of minorities of any city over 100,000 citizens.
The Mackinac Policy Center, founded with Governor John Engler, calls the Detroit Public Schools a
“monopoly” because at the time the Center focused legislation on bringing Charters to Detroit, during the
Engler administration, the city had 167,000 students. The school was in the mid range of academic
performance at that time. Free market advocates wanted greater opportunity to earn a profit. Detroit has the
highest concentration of minorities of any city over 100.
In 1999, a Federal judge ruled that Governor Engler’s Public Act 10, (which gave the state authority over the
district for at least five years or until the community voted to return to local authority) was not discriminatory
because the act based school districts under State control on size, and there was a potential that other districts
could grow to the same size as Detroit’s school district.
Members of the State reform board have testified they had no control over the budget. The States appointees
mismanaged the bonds and surplus so that by the time the city could vote to return to elected representatives,
they had to close an unprecedented 32 schools. The next time the State took over from local authority, a Judge
ruled that the EFM caused irreparable harm to the district.
The district has never been repaid for the damage caused by the State of Michigan to the community. Not that
responsible parties have not tried.
A Dailykos.com story published November 8, 2010 called “Michigan’s CEO Rick Snyder Transition Hits Snag
and Will Snyder Toe the Line, discusses a Mackinac Center for Public Policy questionnaire to newly elected
Governor Snyder from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy which asks:
“… in our [Mackinac Center] interview you hedged on whether or not you would support the removal of limitations on the number of
charter schools in Detroit…You appear to be open to this idea, but say you need assurances about quality.”
The article said that the group was arm twisting Governor Snyder was a cartoon about Richard McLellan’s
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