Who allowed private groups enough power to take over Detroit public schools?

[madfloridian]

This is stunning to me...that 70 schools in Detroit are being replaced with 70 new schools. The group doing the taking over is called Excellent Schools Detroit. It is apparently a coalition of groups with vast power.

Excellent Schools Detroit announced last week that it planned to replace failing Detroit schools with 70 new ones and make a $200-million initial investment -- a plan unprecedented in scope anywhere in the country

Someone must have allowed this takeover to happen. It appears the Gates Foundation, the Skillman Foundation, and probably the Broad Foundation through Robert Bobb, one of their Broad superintendents are quite wealthy and influential groups. Public education is being handed to them with barely a whimper.



Members of Excellent Schools Detroit talk about the citywide education plan Wednesday. From left, they are: New Urban Learning Founder Doug Ross, Skillman Foundation chief Carol Goss and Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb. (PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press)

Releasing details of an ambitious plan to remake schools in the city of Detroit, a coalition of nonprofit organizations said Wednesday that it plans to push for mayoral control of Detroit Public Schools, set up an independent commission to grade every school in the city, including charters, and establish a goal of graduating 90% of kids from high school by 2020.

The group, calling itself Excellent Schools Detroit, announced last week that it planned to replace failing Detroit schools with 70 new ones and make a $200-million initial investment -- a plan unprecedented in scope anywhere in the country. The group has commitments from the Gates Foundation and other national groups willing to come to Detroit, said Carol Goss, CEO and president of the Skillman Foundation, a key leader in the effort.

Who gave this coalition the power to disband the school board and turn the schools over to mayoral control.

As those schools close, they would be replaced by new schools paid for from $200 million in grants provided by four foundations, led by the Skillman Foundation. The education plan, "Taking Ownership: Our Pledge to Educate All of Detroit's Children," is to be released to the public today. It is full of strategies to boost student performance. These are among the key components:

• Turning over control of Detroit Public Schools to the mayor.

• Abolishing the elected school board.

• Generating public pressure on DPS and charter school operators to close failing schools or programs.

Detroit Schools are fighting back, but the ones they are fighting have the power and the money...and they have big big influence with Arne Duncan and the Obama administration.

Detroit Schools board sues Robert Bobb over private compensation

The Detroit Public School Board unanimously voted Monday night to file a second lawsuit against Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb, saying $145,000 in private foundation support he receives under his new contract is unlawful.

"It's a conflict of interest," said DPS board member LaMar Lemmons.

Bobb's supplemental income from private foundations increased from $84,000 last year to $145,000 this year, under a one-year contract extension signed by the governor and state superintendent this month. The only philanthropic donor publicly identified is the Broad Foundation, whose support of charter schools has stirred controversy among some members of the DPS community.

"This is more than putting the fox in charge of the hen house, it's serving up the hens to be eaten by this guy," said George Washington, an attorney representing the teachers and community activist groups who have spearheaded the lawsuit and who urged the board Monday to join them.

This is private venture philanthropy performing a hostile takeover of Detroit Public Schools. It's not a surprise that Bobb's salary includes their private money.

It's not a surprise that Broad and Arne Duncan are friends.


Arne Duncan and Eli Broad
Broad Inauguration Party in Washington D.C., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (Photo/Stuart Ramson)

The Inauguration Party thrown by Broad for President Obama.

The guest list looked like a who’s who list of Washington old and new: Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama’s choice for secretary of state and her husband, former President Bill Clinton; Lawrence Summers, the former treasury secretary and new White House chief economics adviser; Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve; Arne Duncan, Mr. Obama’s pick for Education Secretary, Leon Panetta, the nominee for director of the C.I.A.; Vernon Jordan, the power lawyer, as well as media celebrities like Larry King and Charlie Rose.

It is getting more blatant every day....this hijacking of public education for profit.