School Information System: Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to announce sweeping Detroit Public Schools reforms Monday

June 21, 2011

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to announce sweeping Detroit Public Schools reforms Monday

Gov. Rick Snyder will create a new authority to run several failing Detroit Public Schools as part of a sweeping reform package to be announced Monday for the struggling district, sources said.

The plan would restructure the failing school district, which has a $327 million budget deficit, by moving underperforming DPS schools under a new authority to be run by current DPS Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts, according to sources.

Roberts would have the authority to make new work rules at those schools, a process sources familiar with the discussions said could take a year. A law passed this year gives emergency managers new powers to control academic and financial matters and to cancel or modify union contracts.