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Gov. Rick Snyder (center) has replaced Roy Roberts (left) with the city's CFO Jack Martin (right) as the new emergency manager of Detroit Public schools.[/caption]
DETROIT - Gov. Rick Snyder announced July 15 that the city's current chief financial officer, Jack Martin, will replace Roy Roberts as the emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools, effective immediately.
Roberts, who's term was extended in May, is retiring from the position after more than two years in office.
At a press conference held at Davison Elementary School, Snyder said there's been progress from "the financial point."
"We're seeing good progress in terms of the budget." He also said students' performance in graduation rates and test scores have increased.
But he says, "it's not there yet."
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Jack Martin in new EM for Detroit Public Schools[/caption]
"There is still work to be done, and Jack Martin’s problem-solving skills, expertise and strong management and leadership abilities will help continue the positive transformation of Detroit Public Schools," Snyder announced.
The governor's analytic praise, however, on the benefit of emergency management over DPS in the past four years, is in stark contrast to some educators' analysis, who have been researching the impact of emergency management in the city's shrinking public school district.
Earlier this year Tom Pedroni, associate professor of curriculum studies at Wayne State University, gave emergency management in DPS a failing grade.
"The proficiency gap between DPS and schools across the rest of state has actually increased since emergency management came to Detroit in 2009," Pedroni wrote in his report release earlier this year. "(The numbers) show that Detroit’s third- through eighth-graders continue to lose ground in reading and math proficiency in most categories."
The worst impact has been on the younger students who've spent most of their school years under emergency management, according to Pedroni, referring to students in the third, fourth and fifth grades.
Pedroni also argues the claim of fiscal stability under emergency management.
EM Roberts has announced proudly that he cut the district's $327 million deficit, he inherited by his predecessor Robert Bobb, by $250 million.
"Roberts didn’t mention that the deficit reduction was largely accomplished by selling new long-term bonds," Pedroni wrote in his report. "And he didn’t mention that, according to the district’s annual financial reports, Bobb had come in as emergency financial manager to reduce a $218-million operating deficit but instead increased it to $327 million."
Detroit Public Schools has been under emergency management since 2009. It has been under state control since 1999.
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