Dive Brief:
- Michigan's state-appointed emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools, Darnell Earley, revealed Tuesday that he plans to resign four-and-a-half months early on Feb. 29.
- Earley is currently taking heat for what appears to be his key role in creating Flint's water pollution crisis, as well as his handling of teacher sickouts and crumbling building conditions in Detroit's schools.
- Blaming Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's Republican-backed education reform plan, Earley said proposals to chop the district in half and restructure debt played a primary role in his resignation decision.
Dive Insight:
What will happen next in Detroit? Not much is clear, except for the fact that the district is in serious trouble.
Earley's resignation also comes on the heels of a new lawsuit filed by the Detroit Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers this week. They're suing both Detroit Public Schools and Earley himself over unsafe learning conditions.
DPS Superintendent Brian Whiston says his district will be bankrupt by this coming April if action isn't taken, yet the two state bills that have been introduced, Senate Bills 710 and 711, are based on Snyder's controversial ed plan — and getting the new legislation passed might be impossible.
Mass teacher protests and "sickouts" have closed dozens of DPS schools, and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's visits to a few DPS buildings led to subsequent calls for a district-wide investigation of 97 different buildings. The results of that investigation found at least one, if not more, violations at every single building — many of which require construction.