John Merrow of Learning Matters has an interview here with Robert Bobb, Detroit Public School's "Emergency Financial Manager," who was brought in to help right a school district with a $259 million deficit that's hemorrhaging students. His successes so far have been impressive. He's rooted out corruption, fraud, and waste to an impressive degree-balancing the books, at least for this year:
For instance, an audit we conducted to determine eligibility of healthcare dependents initially showed 411 ineligible people on the rolls, including some who were deceased. The number of ineligible dependents dropped from the rolls has since increased to 3,903.?? The annual savings is estimated at $13.3 million.In the school year 2008-09, the district used taxicab service along 447 cab routes and serviced 1,155 students at a cost of $4.6 million. Not any longer: this year we're spending just $1 million on 106 routes and 162 students. We are consolidating some bus transportation routes and saving another $4 million. These are operational reviews that are standard in any industry and should've been conducted. In addition to misspending, though, we also have people stealing computers from our schools, stealing bags of money from the lunchroom and other outrageous wrongdoing. I created an Office of Inspector General to root out such corruption. I won't tolerate one red cent being stolen from Detroit's schoolchildren.
And yet the interview ends on an unintentionally discouraging note, at least for those hoping to read about more systematic reform:
We already announced a $148.4 million academic reinvestment plan, to be paid for through Stimulus funding.?? We'll spend it on class size reductions in early grades, enhanced extended day programs, high priority school partnerships, Netbooks for nearly all DPS students in grades 6-12 as well as their teachers, "Double Dosing" of high school math and English Language Arts instruction, expanded professional development and increased supplemental learning materials.
This reads like a laundry list of faux-reforms -- shrink class sizes, get everyone a computer, give the teachers professional development, and live off short-lived federal dollars. (What about recruiting better teachers, say from Teach for America, who might also be cheaper? Of course, TFA left Detroit in 2004, as budget cuts caused its teachers to be fired under inane last-hired-first-fired rules.)
Fortunately, Bobb is working on such big, long-term reforms-they're just not in Merrow's interview. He's called for mayoral control, a la D.C. and New York. He has shut down a number of schools (angering many parents). And, The Detroit News reported last month:
Key to his vision is achieving radical reforms in the teachers union contract that would challenge cherished provisions, such as seniority. "It's the Holy Grail for the union," Bobb said. "For us, it is a monumental problem." Great teachers with less than 10 years of experience are losing their jobs while some longtime, but ineffective, teachers are retained, he said. Principals need to be able to keep the best teachers, he said.Using the teachers' contract in New York City as a model, Bobb wants to create a special "chancellor's district" for the lowest performing schools -- an estimated 50-54 schools out of the district's 172. The schools would operate under new rules: no seniority for teachers, extended school days and prescribed teaching techniques. Performance-based bonuses would be instituted for schools that achieve goals. Everyone, including custodians and cafeteria workers, would be eligible, based on a formula.
Now we're talking.
