Role of Community Influencers & Using Fiscal Solvency cont…
Clearly, who did not benefit, were the people of Detroit who voted for the bonds under the promise of community input and
must pay for them.
Let me be clear: Governor Snyder has usurped the authority of the State Board of Education, the State Superintendent and
that of the locally elected school boards and replaced them with a corrupt, syndicate like, racketeering operation, resulting in
the worst academic performances and fiscal insolvency in the history of the State of Michigan.
And as people were driven out, so were the mom and pop businesses, and the jobs that come with small business.
We know that the Governor’s district, the EAA has altered records, student transcripts and grades. What is reported to the
press has not been a complete and accurate reflection of student learning in the EAA. An April 1, 2013 Huffington Post article
by Wayne State University Professor Dr. Thomas Pedroni, noted one of the myriad inaccuracies reported by the State
authority when he described Roy Roberts false report at a national educational summit held in Detroit, that he had increased
academic performance to outshine the rest of the state in 14 of 18 MEAP categories! Ludicrous. Says Pedroni:
“Roberts might be forgiven if his facts were a bit off the mark. It turns out, according to the
Michigan Department of Education, that DPS did not outshine the state in 14 of 18 MEAP
categories. The actual number was somewhat lower -- zero. DPS trailed the Michigan average
in proficiency in all 18 categories. And not just by a bit -- by more than 10 percentage points in
the two science categories, and by 20 or more in the other 16. But it was a happy moment at the
summit.”
Teachers are have been retaliated against and are afraid to tell what they see: IEP’s not being followed, transcripts altered,
numbers doctored. A gag order has been in effect since Robert Bobb. Staff intended for instruction is used for administrative
purposes, but under the Governor….shhh… don’t tell…is the atmosphere, when children are not being served.
So State authority did not help the students or the community, but bound us in crippling debt, pushed test scores downward,
caused property values to plummet and created huge vacant school buildings in the middle of neighborhoods.
We have looked at hundreds upon hundreds of examples. The home values across the city declined in 2005 and it is to search
for a needle in a hay stack to find homes that are now comparable to their 2005 value. Fig. 1.This home on Stegar in 48238
was valued at $80,000 in 2005, and now selling for $14,000. The green dollar sign shows that it sold for $450 in April of 2013!
Most homes reveal much more dramatic graphs. Fig. 2 A pretty well maintained home on Vassar in 48235 was valued near
$170,000 in 2005, and has lost two thirds of its value now.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
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