Dive Brief:
- A total of 57 Michigan charter and traditional public schools ended the past fiscal year in the red, according to the state's Department of Education, which supplied the data last week to the state House and Senate education budget subcommittees.
- According to the report, 55 of the districts still have deficits, and two of the charter schools have since closed.
- The number of schools with deficits is an increase from last year, when 52 districts were in the red.
Dive Insight:
More shocking than any of this, however, is the fact that Martin announced in the summer that he expects all of DPS' deficit to be fully erased by 2017-18. This seems like impossible math and ultimately points to the overarching failures of the decision to plan DPS under the supervision of emergency management.
The auto industries and the banks got bailed out, but what about the school districts? Detroit is not alone: Philadelphia is also in the midst of massive budget issues. What's the point in having a school district if it's merely providing a hold room for students?