Mackinac: Convert DPS To Charters
The struggle to keep the Detroit Public Schools afloat continues, as the emergency financial manager has told union officials they can't pay district employees after the end of June. By then, the district will run out of money.
Various ideas have come up, as the state faces the prospect of bailing out the district and giving them another infusion of cash. It's a grand-scale example of an issue caused in part by similar issues faced locally in Battle Creek and Albion - students are choosing other schools and districts.
Rep. Dr. John Bizon (R-Battle Creek) is touting a plan to allow neighboring districts to absorb DPS buildings and students, and essentially dissolve the district. Bizon admits the idea "hasn't gotten much traction" in Lansing.
Meanwhile, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy is recommending converting the district to all-charter schools, an idea the group's education policy director offered up during House Appropriations Committee testimony in March.
That director - Ben DeGrow - talked about the idea on WBCK. Hear what he had to say by clicking the player below.
Hear The Richard Piet Show weekday mornings from 5:30-9 on WBCK.