Michigan Senate approves $617 million bailout to restructure DPS
Source: Fox 2 Detroit
POSTED:JUN 08 2016 11:43PM EDT
UPDATED:JUN 09 2016 12:12AM EDT
The Michigan Senate approved a $617 million bailout and restructuring of Detroit's debt-ridden school district late Wednesday, two years after the state spent money to help the city government emerge from bankruptcy.
The legislation will soon reach Gov. Rick Snyder for his expected signature as long as the House OKs some changes. The Republican-controlled Senate narrowly passed a main bill, 19-18, after it won passage along party lines in the GOP-led House last week.
The financially and academically ailing 46,000-student Detroit Public Schools has been managed by the state for seven years, during which it has continued to face plummeting enrollment, deficits and, more recently, teacher sick-out protests.
Under the bills, the district would be split in two and control would be returned to an elected school board. A commission of state appointees would oversee the district's finances, similarly to how it now reviews the city's budgeting as part of a $195 million state rescue in 2014
Read more: http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/156228449-story
Looking deeper, this might not be as good of a deal as it should be.
"But Democrats united against the bills, expressing concerns that the money would fall short of what is needed to adequately help a district decimated by declining enrollment -- both due to population loss and many students in the city attending publicly funded charter schools or suburban schools."
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