Eric Ramirez
Judge Approves Bankruptcy Exit Plan For Detroit. DETROIT (AP) — A judge cleared Detroit to emerge from bankruptcy Friday, approving a hard-fought turnaround plan with a fervent plea to the people of this one-time industrial powerhouse to "move past your anger" and help fix the Motor City.
"What happened in Detroit must never happen again," federal Judge Steven Rhodes said in bringing the case to a close a relatively speedy 16 months after Detroit — the cradle of the auto industry — became the biggest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy. The plan calls for cutting the pensions of 12,000 non-public safety retirees by 4.5 percent, erasing $7 billion of debt and spending $1.7 billion to demolish thousands of blighted buildings, make the city safer and improve long-neglected basic services.
Rhodes praised decisions that settled the most contentious issues in the case, including a deal to prevent the sale of world-class art at the Detroit Institute of Arts and a consensus that prevented pension cuts from getting even worse. Detroit To Officially Exit Historic Bankruptcy. DETROIT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Detroit will officially exit the biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy later on Wednesday, officials said, allowing Michigan’s largest city to start a new chapter with a lighter debt load.
The city, which filed for bankruptcy in July 2013, will shed about $7 billion of its $18 billion of debt and obligations. “We’re going to start fresh tomorrow and do the best we can to deliver the kind of services people deserve,” said Mayor Mike Duggan. Once a symbol of U.S. industrial might, Detroit fell on hard times after decades of population loss, rampant debt and financial mismanagement left it struggling to provide basic services to residents. Later on Wednesday, payments to city creditors will be triggered under a debt adjustment plan confirmed by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge last month. The Detroit Bankruptcy. The Detroit Bankruptcy The City of Detroit’s bankruptcy was driven by a severe decline in revenues (and, importantly, not an increase in obligations to fund pensions).
Depopulation and long-term unemployment caused Detroit’s property and income tax revenues to plummet. The state of Michigan exacerbated the problems by slashing revenue it shared with the city. Detroit Public Schools, Michigan - Ballotpedia. Detroit Public Schools is a school district in Wayne County, Michigan.
Detroit is the largest school district by enrollment in Michigan and served 51,979 students in 104 schools during the 2012-2013 school year.[2] Since March 2, 2009, the state of Michigan has overseen the school district through an appointed emergency manager.[3][4] In July 2013, Governor Rick Snyder appointed Jack Martin to the position of emergency manager.[5] About the district. Detroit Public Schools Budget: Cuts, Cuts, Cuts. This story has been updated.
Detroit Public Schools officials released the district's proposed 2012 budget Thursday, a plan rife with cuts and changes. All DPS employees will take a 10 percent salary hit in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012, and, like public workers throughout Michigan, will be expected to contribute more to their benefits plan. Language about recruiting new teachers stresses hiring from external pools such as Teach for America. Beyond the pay cuts, the district is also eliminating 853 positions, reducing its head count by roughly 8.5 percent. Administrative personnel cuts include 12 principals, 36 assistant principals, 40 guidance counselors, 18 clerical staffers and 43 central office supervisors. The Center for Michigan : Detroit schools must stop poaching students during the school year. Kristen McDonald Across the city of Detroit, student learning is being disrupted by what’s nearly become a combat sport – predatory enrollment campaigns.
When schools should be focusing on increasing student learning, instead much effort, money and time is spent hosting open houses, sending mailings and buying radio ads. It’s a side effect of a bigger problem. Detroit has too many schools with too many seats – some sources suggest more than 20,000 seats are empty. Because of that oversupply, schools across the city are far more accountable for ensuring they get kids through their doors than being accountable for actually helping them learn.
So quality suffers. But instead of focusing everything on fixing that, schools are adding to the chaos with misleading ad campaigns in a battle to pull kids from one failing classroom to another. Marketing in spring or summer is understandable. Detroit's 'Count Days' Entices Student Attendance. Michigan Forward has a plan for Detroit School Board reform. Michigan Forward is working diligently to make sure the best public school education environment is created in Detroit.
Your support of our plan means that you believe Detroiters have a voice in the turnaround of not only our public school system but Detroit as well. Our plan, “Reforming the Detroit School Board” restores accountability and transparency in our public education system. Improving public education in Detroit, improves Detroit attracting new businesses and fast tracks community development. Michigan Forward's full plan is available for download at www.michiganforward.org. EAA is key to education reform in Michigan. Collectively, we have spent more than 20 years seeking a fix for Detroit’s public education system by serving on Detroit school boards, starting new schools and funding efforts to turn around underperforming schools.
We appreciate how exhausting an effort it has been for all involved. For years, it seemed that each step forward was thwarted by the realities imposed by a declining economic and population base. But we now stand at a historic juncture, one that has the potential to permanently enhance the education of our children and bring stability to the school systems that serve them, not just in Detroit, but throughout our state. The report of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, released Monday, is a blueprint for a stronger, more coherent educational structure. The Detroit Teachers' Strike. LAST AUGUST 27, the 9500-member Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT), including 6000 teachers for over 100,000 students, voted overwhelmingly to strike.
On September 13, union members narrowly voted to return to work. By October 6, they voted up the new contract, 5401-1714. Detroit Public Schools announces 10 percent wage cut, new round of school closures. By Thomas Gaist 20 August 2014 New budget documents submitted by the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) to the state of Michigan show that the department is planning a 10 percent cut to the wages of teachers and education workers to go into effect over the next year.
DPS claims that the plan's aggressive cost-cutting measures will completely eliminate its $120 million budget deficit by fiscal year 2017-18. The 2015 budget plan advanced by DPS seeks to reduce spending on wages by $21.1 million, including cuts of $5.7 million to wages for instructional staff support and $2.1 million for school administration workers.
Pending approval by State Superintendent Mike Flanagan the wage cut will go into effect on October 1. Daniel Howes: Snyder on track to 'own' Detroit's education woes. Gov. Rick Snyder is fond of reminding anyone who'll listen that he started "thinking" about Detroit's deep troubles about a year before he was elected in 2010. To that list can be added public education in Detroit, a continuing outrage of mismanagement, under-performance and failed expectations over which the governor is exerting more control because the status quo is failing. Critics decry his latest move — transferring the school reform office from the Department of Education to the Office of Management and Budget he oversees — evidently overlooking the risk it represents for Michigan's top Republican.
With each new step, the man whose team pushed Detroit through Chapter 9 bankruptcy in less than 15 months is on his way to "owning" public education in Detroit — emphasis here on the word owning. Gives new meaning to the phrase "break it, you own it. "