The Detroit Public School System is the least envied school district in the United States, but can other districts actually learn a thing or two from their situation?
The story of the Detroit Public School System is a sad one no matter where you live or your political persuasion. DPS’ dysfunction has directly impacted literally tens of thousand of the city’s children over the years. I saw the extremes, having taught at both Cass Tech (one of the best) and Southeastern (hopefully the worst). As I left Southeastern after feeling physically unsafe at the school, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that some great kids were simply doomed. It was an unbelievable experience – one I will never forget.
DPS gets lots of press not just for the well documented troubles, but for the exploits of emergency financial manager Robert Bobb, who makes headlines almost daily for uncovering fraud, waste and incompetence. He has become a media darling – portrayed as the chivalrous knight galloping to the rescue. It’s tough to view him any other way, but in typical fashion, that same media is now beginning to ask some tough questions. A Detroit Free Press article questioned the ethics of Bobb awarding a no-bid contract to a former employer. Others are questioning various unilateral decisions. After all, Bobb knows no other kind
Now the DPS School Board (yes, they still have one) is questioning the limits of Bobb’s authority in relation to their own. Free Press editorial page editor Stephen Henderson quoted Bobb as saying, “This [Detroit School] Board has created the perfect storm for its own demise… The elected Board just is not working.” I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the article describing the reconciliation of the Board and Robert Bobb!
What can be made of all this? Is Bobb really that good? Was the Board that bad? It’s probably a bit of both.
Based on some of the things Bobb has uncovered it’s tough not place the blame on the DPS School Board (e.g. people illegitimately on the payroll, health care coverage fraud, etc). Ultimately the failures of the district are the Board’s responsibility. DPS didn’t make the right moves or tough decisions quickly enough or in enough volume to avoid being essentially deposed. Since Michigan funds public schools on a per pupil basis, once the outflow of students reached critical mass, DPS was in a world of hurt. Is it logical to think the members of the DPS Board of Education didn’t see that coming?
Although I have never attended a DPS School Board meeting, they probably did see it coming. I bet they knew their dire predicament, but couldn’t agree on the solutions, weren’t organized enough to act on them, and didn’t build the right relationship with their superintendent to execute them. Many school boards deal with these challenges to some degree, but probably not to the near Biblical extent as DPS. To their credit, they did make some tough decisions. Who could forget the infamous DPS Board meeting when an angry resident was arrested for throwing grapes at the trustees when the topic turned to school closings? Meanwhile Bobb is lauded for making the same decisions. What’s the difference? Well, for starters Bobb isn’t required to have meetings open to the public like school boards are. That same grape thrower would have trouble finding Bobb let alone getting a clean shot at him. Instead of being hit with grapes he’s fed them while reclining on a couch being fanned from the heat.
Bobb is himself a former Washington D.C. school board president. He knows what nasty school board meetings are like. That’s more than just an interesting tidbit. D.C.’s public schools were the topic of similar crisis/turnaround stories a couple years ago when a 37 year-old Michelle Rhee burst onto the scene as their wunderkind superintendent. I don’t know Bobb’s role in relation to Rhee’s hiring, but they seem to have been cut from similar cloth. Both seem to have a “damn the torpedoes” approach. It underscores the importance of having philosophical harmony between the Board and the Superintendent, something the DPS Board was clearly unable to achieve. Bobb doesn’t have that problem in Detroit.
He’s got a tough task ahead of him, but I bet Bobb likes sitting where he sits now versus being a Board member. Why? In Detroit Bobb operates free and clear of almost any of the organizational elements that impact how a school board acts:
- Does Bobb care about the DPS school board’s opinion? I think the quotes above cover that topic sufficiently.
- What about the DPS superintendent of schools? Pop quiz time: Who IS the DPS superintendent? Bobb essentially carries the authority of the Board AND Administration simultaneously.
- What about the voting public? While I am sure Bobb does care what they think, as a practical matter he’s the governor’s appointee. He doesn’t need to be concerned about facing the scrutiny of an election – or projectile fruit.
Bobb can make rapid fire decisions at will, unencumbered by Board policy, politics, Open Meetings Act, administration’s opinion, or those of angry residents – in short, all the fun perks of serving on a school board.
It’s been a veritable love-fest for Robert Bobb. I wonder what changes the now impotent school board might have made under similarly unrestrained conditions? We’ll never know – and Bobb is the progeny of their ineffectiveness. In that respect, Bobb’s quote above is very appropriate. They “created their own demise.” Contributing to their demise was an utter lack of faith in them from the people they represented. When residents can’t trust their Board they’ll hardly have the confidence in them to support the tough decisions. Bobb’s conquests in rooting out waste prove why the public had such little faith in the DPS board.
But what would happen if local Boards of Education utilized the tactics available to Bobb in making decisions? I suspect they would be swiftly removed from office and/or tarred and feathered. Maybe both, but I’m not sure in which order.
But seriously, that’s the other key contributor to the near complete absence of opposition to Bobb’s strategy. There is unanimous agreement that DPS needs dramatic and immediate action to survive – and Bobb is delivering that daily. DPS reached a state of crisis, when dramatic action becomes not only acceptable, but expected. Some of his moves are no-brainers and Bobb should indeed be praised for acting quickly and decisively. The DPS Board of Education left plenty of low hanging fruit. That’ll last a little while, but the harvest gets thinner with time. When that time comes and if Bobb doesn’t deliver on the turnaround, Detroit residents may load up at the produce section of that new Meijer’s!
I hope it doesn’t come to that – for the good of those tens of thousands of students, for the city, and for the region. I sincerely hope Bobb gets it done and DPS recovers, although I think it will be very hard. I also hope districts in less distress than DPS realize that difficult problems require difficult responses. You don’t want your district to reach a state of crisis before everyone agrees that tough decisions are required.
The process for making tough decisions, like democracy itself, can be messy and uncomfortable. Most citizens don’t resort to fruit, but communities can be tough on school boards when they, errr… grapple …with tough choices. If communities can’t cope with that then they need to ponder the alternative. You don’t want a Robert Bobb appointed to run your district, not because he’s not competent, but because it means (a) that your district is a mess and (b) that you won’t have much say in decisions.