{"id":433467,"date":"2010-03-16T02:20:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T06:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16711557.post-9079203457094449104"},"modified":"2010-03-16T02:20:46","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T06:20:46","slug":"seizing-shrinking-and-privatizing-detroit-public-schools-and-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/433467","title":{"rendered":"Seizing, Shrinking and Privatizing Detroit Public Schools and Government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, at the Detroit Bead Museum on the west side during September 2008. (Photo: Omorose)<\/a>
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Seizing, Shrinking and Privatizing Detroit Public Schools and Government<\/p>\n

Corporate interests and government operatives unveil plans to \u201crightsize\u201d city<\/p>\n

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire<\/p>\n

Over the last several weeks the spokespersons for corporate Detroit have issued plans to both take total control of the public school system as well as \u201cshrink\u201d the city over the next decade. These efforts come amid the worse economic crisis in Detroit since the Great Depression where the city leads all other major urban centers in joblessness with an official unemployment rate of 28 percent.<\/p>\n

A plan to turn over control of the Detroit Public Schools to Mayor Dave Bing has sparked outrage throughout the city from community organizations, unions and the elected Board of Education. One year ago Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed an Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) Robert Bobb to purportedly balance the budget of the beleaguered school district and improve its fiscal operations.<\/p>\n

Yet since the appointment of Bobb, the deficit for the Detroit Public Schools has increased by $100 million and the controversial gubernatorial appointee has recently been awarded an annual pay raise of $81 thousand. A series of lawsuits have been filed against Bobb by both the elected Detroit Board of Education, the Detroit Federation of Teachers and independent groups of teachers and parents.<\/p>\n

In addition to the attacks on the elected school board, the teachers\u2019 union and community organizations, the EFM has also announced the cancellation of the existing bus contract which is held by Safeway and is switching to First Student Transportation Co. The plan will leave over 300 bus drivers out of work, many of whom have in excess of 25 years of service with DPS.<\/p>\n

Although Bobb has stated that the change will save the DPS approximately $50 million, there is no evidence that this will actually occur. In fact the record of First Student has been questioned by the drivers for Safeway, a company which has been providing transportation for DPS students for the last 34 years.<\/p>\n

On March 10-11 several dozen bus drivers and their supporters traveled to the state capital in Lansing to protest the actions of the EFM demanding that their contract be reinstated and that Bobb be terminated from his position. The drivers met with a number of African-American state legislators from Detroit who pledged support, however, Gov. Granholm refused to see the transportation employees.<\/p>\n

Protest actions and public hearings in opposition to these decisions involving public education has prompted the backers of privatization to accelerate the process of a takeover of the schools. On March 11, the EFM and 15 other groups announced a sweeping plan to seize control of the district and place it under the ostensible control of the corporate-oriented Mayor Bing and to hire private management companies to administer its operations.<\/p>\n

At a press conference on March 11 the school takeover plan was announced by Skillman Foundation CEO Carol Goss who was flanked by a number of other groups including New Detroit, Inc., the University Preparatory Academy Charter School and the Detroit Parent Network which is financed heavily by the Kresge Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sad day,\u201d said Ruby Newbold, who is president of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees. We are saddened by what is going on in the city of Detroit. How dare you dismantle our school district!\u201d<\/p>\n

Newbold also stated that \u201cThis community is not going to take it anymore,\u201d which sparked a standing ovation from the audience.<\/p>\n

A mass demonstration took place on March 15 in opposition to Robert Bobb and the Governor\u2019s plans to take over control of the school district. The protest was held outside Renaissance High School where Bobb delivered his \u201cstate of education\u201d report seeking public support for the plan to eliminate the Detroit School Board and place total control under Mayor Bing and private management firms.<\/p>\n

According to the corporate media, it will take only 4,000 signatures of registered voters to place such a referendum on the ballot in November. The same private interests that pay a substantial portion of Robert Bobb\u2019s salary are undoubtedly willing to bankroll an electoral campaign to sway voters to allow this seizure of the public schools to take place.<\/p>\n

Plans Launched to \u201cRightsize\u201d City<\/p>\n

Meanwhile attacks on Detroit residents continue through the proposals to restructure the city by razing neighborhoods and commercial districts to create what is touted as a more efficient system of municipal governance. In speeches and articles in the corporate dailies and Crain\u2019s Detroit business weekly, corporate interests and foundations are promoting the notion that large sections of the city should be bulldozed, fenced off and sold to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with WJR Radio in Detroit, Bing stated that \u201cIf we don\u2019t do it, you know this whole city is going to go down. I\u2019m hopeful people will understand that. If we can incentivize some of those folks that are in those desolate areas, they can get a better situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bing continued by stating \u201cYou can\u2019t support every neighborhood. You can\u2019t support every community across this city. Those communities that are stable, we can\u2019t allow them to go down the tubes. That\u2019s not a good business decision from my vantage point.\u201d (Detroit News, Feb. 25, 2010)<\/p>\n

One of the principal architects of this downsizing plan is the Kresge Foundation based in the Detroit suburb of Troy. An article published in Crain\u2019s Detroit in January stated that \u201cThat the city must shrink is beyond debate, said Rip Rapson, president of the Troy-based Kresge Foundation, which has offered to fund the plan. And a land use plan is crucial to developing viable long-term strategies.\u201d (Crain\u2019s, Jan. 30, 2010)<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, opposition to these plans is widespread throughout the city. Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality spokesperson Ron Scott stated that he was adamantly opposed to such a plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds like a reservation to me, it sounds like telling people to move. The citizens of the city of Detroit who built this city, the working class, didn\u2019t create this situation. You are diminishing the constitutional options people have by contending you have a crisis.\u201d (Detroit News, Feb. 25)<\/p>\n

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs has called for two major activities in response to the burgeoning crisis in Detroit. On March 23, Moratorium NOW! will sponsor a demonstration outside Mayor Bing\u2019s \u201cState of the City\u201d address where unions, community organizations and other opposition forces are encouraged to voice their displeasure with the administration and its corporate backers.<\/p>\n

In addition, on March 27, a Town Hall meeting will be held at the Central United Methodist Church downtown in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under the Roosevelt administration. The WPA put 8 million people back to work during the 1930s at the height of the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

According to Moratorium NOW! \u201cToday, with tens of millions of workers\u2014especially youth\u2014unemployed, we need a real, public jobs program, NOW! We can\u2019t wait for some imaginary future jobs from the banks and corporations who have already been bailed out with trillions of our tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The community organization continues by pointing out that \u201cThere is plenty that needs doing immediately in Detroit\u2014repairing roads and bridges, cleaning parks, insulating and fixing up thousands of vacant homes so no one is homeless or without heat.\u201d
<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, at the Detroit Bead Museum on the west side during September 2008. (Photo: Omorose)Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos Seizing, Shrinking and Privatizing Detroit Public Schools and Government Corporate interests and government operatives unveil plans to \u201crightsize\u201d city By Abayomi AzikiweEditor, Pan-African News Wire Over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}