Episodes
Monday Sep 08, 2014
Leid Stories - 09/08/14
Monday Sep 08, 2014
Monday Sep 08, 2014
Motown’s Katrina: The Secret Bankruptcy Plans for Detroit’s Public Schools
A trial to determine whether the City of Detroit will be given official clearance under federal bankruptcy laws to proceed with its draconian restructuring plan enters its second week. It’s the final phase of legal wrangling over whether Kevyn Orr, the state-imposed emergency manager for the city, has proven a purported $18 billion in debt, has worked out agreements with creditors on how much they will be paid and terms of payment, and has a credible plan for putting the city back on solid, long-term fiscal footing.
Detroit’s bankruptcy, the largest for a municipality in U.S. history, has drawn national and international attention, because it was the world-renowned center of U.S. automobile manufacturing.
Two guests on Leid Stories today will discuss a major intended consequence of Detroit’s bankruptcy—the evisceration of its public school system, which is already in progress. Hurricane Katrina was used to shut down New Orleans’ public schools (charter schools now are fully in charge of education there); bankruptcy is being used to shutter Detroit’s schools, they say.
Elena Herrada, a member of the Detroit School Board and an activist with Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management, says that school properties have already been turned over to real estate interests and are a key part of the city’s “rebirth” plan. Shutting down and selling off public schools “is how they’re emptying neighborhoods,” she says.
Dr. Thomas C. Pedroni, associate professor of curriculum studies and policy sociology at Wayne State University and director of the Detroit Data and Democracy Project, predicted Detroit’s schools’ “Katrina moment” years ago. The race-based changes in education in post-Katrina New Orleans and now-bankrupt Detroit cannot be ignored, he says.