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Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb announced a radical restructuring plan for the struggling school system Saturday that he says would save the district millions of dollars by converting 41 poorly performing schools into DPS-authorized charter schools.
Based on a similar plan in post-Katrina New Orleans, the Renaissance Plan 2012 would lease the buildings and equipment to charter operators, who would run the buildings as public school academies in the fall.
The proposal was among four models Bobb presented to the school board at a workshop Saturday. It will require board approval. Under his Renaissance Plan, the estimated immediate savings would be between $75 million and $99 million, said district spokesman Steve Wasko. The district is facing a $327-million deficit.
About 16,000 students currently enrolled in 41 failing Detroit public schools could find themselves attending charter schools next fall, without even changing school buildings.
Under a proposal presented Saturday by Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb and first reported on freep.com, the district would send out requests for proposals as early as this week to charter school operators. Those selected would lease buildings from DPS, generating about $22 million for the district.
The district would see up to $99 million in immediate savings by not having to pay to operate those buildings, Bobb said.The charters would be authorized by DPS, and the students currently attending those schools would receive priority enrollment.
In addition, the teachers, should they decide to stay, would still be part of the bargaining unit.
"Rather than simply closing schools, this plan seeks to transform DPS into one of the nation's premier urban school districts by recruiting some of the best, proven school operators to serve Detroit's children and remake schools that have been failing them for years," Bobb said.
Though Bobb and the school board have often been at odds over management of the district -- even taking their battles to court -- board President Anthony Adams said their independent research came to similar conclusions about the value of a charter-heavy district. The board would have to approve Bobb's plan. But if legislation expanding powers to emergency financial managers passes, that would change.
"Our first goal is to preserve the integrity of DPS as a system," Adams said of keeping the charters under DPS watch. "Our second goal is to eliminate the legacy of debt."
In August, the state Department of Education issued a list of failing public schools. Among Detroit schools, 41 were listed as being in danger of a state takeover. District officials said those schools aren't necessarily the same schools being eyed for charter conversion.
Steve Wasko, spokesman for DPS, said schools with recent remodeling, building projects or personnel overhauls would be largely exempt from the conversion. The district has 142 schools, including nine charters, and is accepting applications for a residential charter school to start in the fall.
But if charter school operators don't step forward, the schools will close, adding to the ranks of shuttered buildings in the district, where enrollment has dropped by more than half since 2000 and district projections put enrollment in the 50,000 range by 2016.
The Renaissance Plan 2012 is one of several models Bobb presented Saturday. Under another model, DPS's revenue would be used to pay off all outstanding debts; the existing school system would be closed and a brand new district would be established with new contracts and staffing levels. Under a second model, a system of charter schools and traditional public schools would be created to replace the existing DPS.
For education experts, the Bobb's announcement represents a do-or-die moment in fixing schools.
"We don't know what kind of results will come from this," said Sharif Shakrani, professor and senior scholar at the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University. "If we continue in the same direction, down the same road, you are not likely to see a significant change. Mr. Bobb basically has no choice but to go that way."
Adams called for public input through a series of meetings citywide.
More details, including the list of schools that could be affected and the call for proposals for charter organizations, will be released this week, school officials said.
Teachers could stay at the schools of their choice and remain under the collective bargaining agreement, said Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson.
Johnson is expected to meet with school officials Monday to discuss the plan.
"I don't have an initial reaction," he told the Free Press on Saturday, but he said that 41 independent charters would be out of the question.
"By law, if they are DPS charters, they have to be under the collective bargaining agreement."
But Jose Afonso, director of U.S. business development for SABIS Educational Systems, which runs nine charter schools in six states, including two in Michigan, says he would not want to run a Detroit school that was governed by a teacher contract. None of the SABIS schools are unionized.
"We would need complete flexibility over staffing," Afonso said.
Yet as Mayor Dave Bing moves to reshape the city, the identity and future of these schools could change some of Bing's boundaries, said Dan Lijana, Bing's spokesman. DPS and the city have worked together in the past when schools closed, he said.
"A strong school is one of those factors that comes into the equation," he said of deciding what areas to consolidate.
"DPS understands (that) what they're doing has to fit in with how the city is going to restructure," Lijana said.
Doug Ross, CEO of New Urban Learning, a nonprofit that runs University Preparatory Schools, said Bobb's plan fits in perfectly with the Excellent Schools Detroit initiative, a plan announced last year to open 70 new high-performing schools in Detroit while closing low-performing schools.
"It could not be more consistent," said Ross.
DPS ranks third in the nation in the percentage of its students attending charter schools, at 36%. The New Orleans and Washington, D.C. districts are Nos. 1 and 2. DPS likely would see its percentage rise to 47% if all 41 schools becomes charters.
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