Public Media from Michigan State University

U.S. Education Secretary, Snyder Tour EAA And DPS Schools

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The Obama Administration’s top education official says public schools in Detroit are improving.

The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Jake Neher has more.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Governor Rick Snyder visited a traditional public school and a school in the state’s Education Achievement Authority.

The EAA is a controversial entity meant to turn around some of the state’s worst public schools. From his visit, Secretary Duncan says he sees promise in the EAA.

But just outside one of the schools, Democratic state Senator Bert Johnson said Duncan wasn’t getting an accurate picture of what’s going on in the EAA.

“I won’t call it a dog and pony show, because, since it involves kids, I don’t want to reduce it to such,”  he said.  “But we do know that they have cleaned up their living room and they are prepared to have company.”

Johnson says the EAA lacks transparency, strips local control, and has not been proven to work.

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Jake Neher is a reporter for the Michigan Public Radio Network. He covers the State Legislature and other political events in Lansing.