September has come and gone without any sign of the legislation that’s essential to getting the discussion started in Lansing. Snyder had originally wanted the handful of bills introduced by last month.
But that deadline keeps getting pushed back.
They are coming along,” Snyder recently told me of his proposals, saying he expects the legislation will be ready “in a few weeks.”
We’ll see. While education reform in Detroit is a priority for Snyder, he and lawmakers have a lot of other distractions. Chief among them is finally figuring out how to fund roads. Snyder’s agenda also includes energy and criminal justice initiatives.
“It will be a busy fall,” he says.
This spring, the governor introduced a detailed vision for how to relieve Detroit Public Schools of its ever-increasing debt load, in addition to how he’d oversee better coordination of all schools in city — including charters.
The Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, led by the Skillman Foundation and comprised of dozens of community stakeholders, came out with its own recommendations in March. And then Mayor Mike Duggan joined the fray in May with some thoughts on how to take on schools.
Since then, the governor’s team, the mayor and the coalition have tried to find compromise among their disparate ideas.
The plans all call for a significant bailout for Detroit Public Schools, which is facing $500 million in debt. That’s one of the chief reasons why lawmakers are needed.
But the plans vary as to the kind of oversight that should accompany such a lifeline. And even though Snyder desperately wants to get support from the Detroiters, he likes his plan best.
So don’t expect the final product to look much different from what he presented in April.
“I think the fundamentals are very similar,” Snyder says. “I think you are going to see some enhancements, because we listened to feedback from a lot of people — both from Detroit and from outstate. “We’ve made some adjustments, but the core is still consistent to create a better educational environment in Detroit.”