The Michigan Senate has passed a $720-million bailout for the troubled Detroit Public Schools. We talk with Skillman Foundation CEO Tonya Allen and MSU assistant professor Sarah Reckhow about what lies ahead for education in Detroit.
Detroit Public Schools is one step closer to a financial rescue after the State Senate voted Tuesday on a $720-million plan to restructure the troubled district. At the center of the legislation is the plan to split the district into two distinct entities.The old DPS would exist to pay down hundreds of millions of dollars in debt while the new district would focus on students’ education.
Current State talks to two of the women keeping a close eye on Detroit’s changing educational landscape about what these changes would mean for public education in the city. Sarah Reckhow is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University who studies urban education policy, and Tonya Allen is the CEO of the Skillman Foundation as well as the director of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren.