Role of Community Influencers & Using Fiscal Solvency cont…
conditions they created, and because of the relationship of some of these parties to the incoming Governor Snyder, we do not
accept the justifications put forward by the State at face value.
A minority community was specifically targeted and has suffered greatly.
Like the Emergency Managers, many members of this group are black. They are educated leaders who have achieved a
special status. They can be characterized as having an entrepreneurial spirit and political ambitions. They do not identify
with the poorest members of the community. Few if any live within the boundaries of the district. They are willing to do what
it takes to achieve the objective to place themselves in power including dismantling the authentic voice of African American
voters, dispersing resources for special education students and retaliating against real parents advocating for their children.
Their emails demonstrate an effort to target specific people and specific geographical areas. They would target and
discriminate against other black, Latino and even disabled people to achieve their personal and collective goals. Why would
black people do this? Greed, power, ambition. Looking down on black people because they feel they are better. They do not
respect the natural choice of leadership of African Americans. The emails reveal their challenge was to find a way to create
state mandates and legislation to achieve their elevation over the Detroit Public Schools without stepping on the toes of white
voters in similarly challenged suburban areas.
Through the Coalition, we are back to the myths of 1965.
In one email the dialogue which includes DPS employees, and state agents they describe how they should spend millions to
encourage students to LEAVE the Detroit Public Schools.
Apparently, to achieve their political aims, they wanted to the lower enrollment, justify school closures, which lead to
classroom crowding, and children having to travel great distances to attend a public school. The distances students travelled
increased was a selling point for gang membership at EAA students. Whether the Coalition members living in suburbia
considered the hardships their strategies of school closures would cause to the relationships between Detroit neighborhood
residents is doubtful. Whether they cared is doubtful. Robert Bobb put forth Proposal S, officially which asked voters to
spend more tax payer dollars on DPS school construction. And Robert Bobb’s history in every city he goes is to make
construction companies a pretty penny. (See Robert Bobb & the Fail ure of Public Act 72).
However, the actual language in the proposal allowed the transfer of newly remodeled buildings to Charter school operators.
Why would Bobb work to lower enrollment and give public assets to Charters? Destroying DPS has been the goal.
Unfortunately for us, destroying thriving black neighborhoods came with the success of their plan.
If we do not accept fiscal solvency of the district as the real goal of the Governor’s actions, we must seek to understand what
other goals would result from the actions of the State to hire agents who strategize how to lower enrollment.
The emails reference very little about how to actually increase the quality of education in the classroom, or how to fund
programs to help vulnerable youth and far more about Charter authorizing and gaining power over contracts and budgets.
Charters. Power. Some of the Governor’s biggest supporters also wanted more Charters in the state. The outcome of the
Governor’s and his team’s actions have resulted in reducing the public school district’s footprint and increasing opportunities
for privatization.
Because fiscal solvency has been inconsistent in districts under emergency management; the effort has been to change the
structure not the educational methodology; and supporters want more Charter opportunities, we are lead to hypothesize that
the purpose of the actions was not to “save” DPS, or even increase test scores.
26