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Detroit and Decay [city may abandon half its schools to pay union benefits]
WSJ ^ | JANUARY 15, 2011 | WSJ

Posted on 01/16/2011 7:29:31 AM PST by Brilliant

Detroit was once America's fourth largest city, though today large sections of its inner core are abandoned to the elements, and monuments like Michigan Central Station are returning to dust. Another emblem of civic decline is a plan to desert nearly half of Detroit's public schools so that it can afford to fulfill its teachers union contract.

The school district is facing a $327 million deficit and has already closed 59 schools over the last two years to avoid paying maintenance, utility and operating costs. Under a worst-case scenario released this week by Robert Bobb, an emergency financial manager appointed by the state to resolve the Detroit education fisc, the district will close another 70 of its remaining 142 schools to save $31.3 million through 2013.

"Additional savings of approximately $12.4 million can be achieved from school closures if the District simply abandons the closed buildings," the proposal explains, purging costs like boarding up buildings, storage and security patrols.

Steven Wasko, a spokesman for Mr. Bobb, said that urban property sales have been difficult, in part because until recently the state board of education banned transactions with "competing educational institutions" like charter schools. Once buildings are deserted, even if the doors and windows are welded shut with protective metal covers, scavengers break in and dismantle them for copper wire, pipes and so on.

Under the emergency plan, consolidated high-school class sizes would increase to 62 by 2014, "consistent with what students would expect in large university settings." Yet under the terms of the Detroit Federation of Teachers contract, the district must pay bonuses for class enrollment over 35, thus imposing some $11.1 million in new costs through 2014...

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: detroit; education; nea; schools; teachers; union; unions
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To: Clemenza

I grew up about a mile from Greenfield Village. The schools were good when I was a kid. Relatively speaking, they are still pretty good. There are a lot more Arabs in the City than there were when I was a kid, but I would not call it an Arab city. When I was a kid, East Dearborn was heavily Arab. Since then a lot of the East Dearborn Arabs have earned a bit of money, and moved to the nicer West Dearborn. There were only a few Arabs in West Dearborn when I was a kid.

There were no black people at all in Dearborn when I was a kid. The mayor, Orville Hubbard, was a segregationist. Look him up on Wikipedia. He spent some time running the City from and living in Canada, where the Feds could not arrest him on corruption charges. Ultimately, the Feds dropped the charges and he moved back to Dearborn. Reading his bio gives you a sense of how different things were in those days.


61 posted on 01/16/2011 10:46:24 AM PST by Brilliant
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To: count-your-change
You do understand I was making a joke.

No I didn't - my bad. Then again, they had someone trying to sell a kid there, so he knew? Then again, it would be a neat way to make a political statement, even though it wouldn't last long. Be a Helluva problem if it wasn't pulled and the winner wanted delivery. :-)

62 posted on 01/16/2011 10:53:23 AM PST by Oatka ("A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." –Bertrand de Jouvenel)
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To: Brilliant; All
We can't read the article unless we subscribe, but tangent to this are the following:

1.) Gov Snyder gives his state of state address this week for Michigan and possibly the budget. Expect IMHO come to Jesus moments for all Unions and Special Interest. ( Today's cover story at the FR baned Detroit News.)
2.) Against the Howels from the Union, The new Gov might throw a long ball and go Charter Schools big time.
3.) 2 weeks ago big cover story over on @ the Detroit News, that of the 3 Pensions for Detorit Workers, they lost 480 million to investing in non-traditional investments / shakey deals that were brokered by Kawame's buddies. Mayor Bing has come out and said the Pensions maybe Unsubstainable.
4.) Over @ the "Business Insider" Gov. Snyder has noted up to 350 communities may have to go chapter 11.
5.) In Wayne County ( MI ) 500,000 people are on food stamps.

63 posted on 01/16/2011 11:04:45 AM PST by taildragger ((Palin / Mulally 2012 ))
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To: umgud

Since 1884, stronger and bigger than ever.


64 posted on 01/16/2011 11:11:08 AM PST by Rumplemeyer
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To: Brilliant

I also grew up in Dearborn and my dad worked at Ford. Later in life I wound up teaching in Detroit. Signs of decay were all around back then. I understand that about 10 years ago, a philanthropist offered something like 200 million dollars to establish charter schools in Detroit. But Gov. Grandholm and the teachers union rejected the offer because he wasn’t going to require teachers to belong to the union.

Sad to say that the city is going down; not even a good man like Dave Bing can save it.


65 posted on 01/16/2011 11:16:53 AM PST by sand lake bar
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To: Brilliant

From History Channel series:

What will Detroit look like 40 years after people?” “We already know...it’s already happened.”


66 posted on 01/16/2011 11:21:07 AM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: Brilliant

Related:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2657504/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2655490/posts


67 posted on 01/16/2011 11:21:31 AM PST by upchuck (When excerpting please use the entire 300 words we are allowed. No more one or two sentence posts!)
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To: sand lake bar
I understand that about 10 years ago, a philanthropist offered something like 200 million dollars to establish charter schools in Detroit. But Gov. Grandholm and the teachers union rejected the offer because he wasn’t going to require teachers to belong to the union.

SLB...

Go here...

http://newsone.com/newsone-original/associated-press/why-detroit-rejected-200-million-for-schools-and-newark-didnt/

Mr. Thompson took his money off the table. I have friend a Detroit Teacher at the time, her story is as follows. The Teachers Struck, and took a day off and went to Lansing to protest. That was it for this teacher, it turned her from a "liberal"" to a "conservative" in a nano-second, and at one point had Dr Thomas Sowell as an email pen/pal friend, her conversion was that pronounced. She left the Detroit System as well.

I hear Mr. Thompson is building about 1 school a year in a deal struck beforw Kawame was halled off in chrome bracelets...

68 posted on 01/16/2011 11:37:11 AM PST by taildragger ((Palin / Mulally 2012 ))
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To: Brilliant

Sounds like Detroit could use a reformer/realist like NJ’s Chris Christie. Any chance a Republican could get elected there or is it all dem all the time?


69 posted on 01/16/2011 11:54:40 AM PST by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Liberty Valance

Given the dysfunctionality that is the city Mayor Bing is the best they got. He is a Dem, I like him a lot and would love to have him upgrade and take over for the Bamster. Look into his past, former NBA star turned businessman that didn’t win right out of the box in biz but persisted and prevailed. If we had more Dems like him, we may have not left the Democratic Party to coin Ronaldus Maximus...


70 posted on 01/16/2011 12:17:24 PM PST by taildragger ((Palin / Mulally 2012 ))
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To: Liberty Valance
Sounds like Detroit could use a reformer/realist like NJ’s Chris Christie. Any chance a Republican could get elected there or is it all dem all the time?

No, it's really not "all dem all the time." Sometimes, it's dem socialists like Congressman John Conyers

71 posted on 01/16/2011 4:10:26 PM PST by Miss_Meyet (Goodbye, Tagline! It's not you, it's me.)
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To: Tribune7
They are the Sheriff of Nottingham. We need a Robin Hood.

If so, he will hide out in Woodward Forest. That is, of course, if the feds pull the monstrous funding on the Detroit Light Rail which is scheduled to go the entire length of Woodward Avenue - from nowhere, to nowhere, carrying almost nobody.

But then, if the project gets defunded by that pesky old green-eyeshade GOP Congress, how is the King going to spend all that Free Stimulus money?

72 posted on 01/16/2011 4:51:24 PM PST by Gritty (Liberalism is like a deadly virus or parasite. It needs a host it uses and abuses.-Ellis Washington)
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To: taildragger

Dave Bing sounds like he’s about two months from being called an “Uncle Tom” by his fellow blacks.


73 posted on 01/16/2011 7:53:54 PM PST by Carling (Remember November)
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To: Miss_Meyet
Dang. That is bad.
74 posted on 01/16/2011 10:00:21 PM PST by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Liberty Valance
Dang. That is bad.

What can I say? It's Detroit.

75 posted on 01/17/2011 6:50:17 AM PST by Miss_Meyet (Goodbye, Tagline! It's not you, it's me.)
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To: Brilliant
That's just a code for forcing the public to think that raising taxes and over spending is justified. It's simply political blackmail in it's purest form.
76 posted on 01/17/2011 6:54:48 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (Patriotic by Proxy! (Cause I'm a nutcase and it's someone else's fault!....))
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To: Clemenza
Dearborn also has dirt cheap housing, particularly compared to my area of the country.

The whole area has dirt cheap housing right now.....if one is working enough hours long term to buy it and put down roots. Anywhere bordering Detroit is a bargain....if it can come back. Dearborn's in better shape than most areas bordering Detroit. Most of the inner right old working class and middle class white ethnic areas are now under 40K.

There's just few jobs here anymore.

77 posted on 01/17/2011 7:12:47 AM PST by Darren McCarty (We should lead ourselves instead of looking for leaders)
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To: martin_fierro

Slide 9 is pretty appropo today


78 posted on 01/17/2011 8:14:32 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: Brilliant

79 posted on 01/17/2011 8:15:58 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: caww

They would not want that mess.


80 posted on 01/17/2011 8:23:59 AM PST by bmwcyle (It is Satan's fault)
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