Some DPS Schools Could Become Charters

DETROIT (WJBK) - Don't think of it as a school system, but a system of schools.  That's how Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb characterizes the charter school plan, but it's left so many people wondering what this means for so many in DPS.

41 of Detroit's 141 public schools are destined to become charter schools, a savings of up to $99-million for the struggling district.  Instead of buildings being boarded up, they'll be in use, and unlike many charter schools, they'll be required to educate all students.

"Whatever we expect about your district schools, we will require also for the schools that we would charter, and we get an additional benefit in that we are able to charge them rent that can provide us with a revenue stream," said DPS Board President Anthony Adams.

What about the teachers?  They argue DPS is saving money by getting rid of them, their salaries and their pensions.  The charter schools will hire their own teachers for less money.  It's not clear yet how many or which DPS teachers will be let go.  Their contract says it should happen by seniority, but that could become obselete.

"Unfortunatly, the governor's about to sign a law that's going to basically destroy our contract and allow the emergency financial manager to delete whatever parts he or she wants to, and when that happens all bets are off," said Mark O'Keefe with the Detroit Federations of Teachers.

It's a new venture and one that Dr. Lorri MacDonald is watching closely.  She's the chair of the Department of Education at the University of Detroit Mercy.  She cautions against expecting too much too soon.

"It takes time.  It takes a whole generation to really get change implemented in an institution as large as public education, but yet we want it now ... and it doesn't work that way," she said.