DETROIT SAGA CONTINUES
DETROIT TEACHERS SUE STATE
Detroit has been in the news for some time...ever since it declared bankruptcy in 2013. After the city went into default and no recovery was in sight, the governor appointed an emergency management team to run the city. Detroit is the 4th largest city in Michigan; some have said it was the richest city in the nation in the late 1940s. Unfortunately, the city has been in free fall since the late 1960's - particularly after the riots of 1967. While Detroit was losing some population earlier, after the 1967 riots it became a flood. In 1942 the black population was 4%, by the end of the war 15%, by 1960 16%, by 1970 only 3 years after the riots it was at 45%, and by 1980, it was 66%. There was a period of racial strife in the city and lawsuits by racial organizations for one reason or another. The affluent white population felt that it was in their best interest to move to the suburbs. In 1973 Coleman Young became the first black mayor of the city. In an attempt to rebuild the city there was much use of federal grants for urban development, including stadiums, and displacing many residents by using eminent domain laws to make way for large building projects.
The 70's and 80's saw large increases in crime connected with the cocaine and heroin epidemic. This, coupled with rampant political corruption in contracts and nepotism in the city administration, led to a further decline in the city. In 1991, violent crime rate rose to 2700 crimes per 100,000; in 2003 the arson rate was 6.3 times the national average and murder was 5.1 times the national average. In spite of millions of dollars of aid for rebuilding the city, it continued to decline. The cycle of population decline and then the raising of taxes to regain revenue, followed by more declines and more taxes, resulted in the raising of 5000 vacant homes in 1990 alone. The population has dropped from 1,849,568 in 1950 to 713,777 today. The current population is 82% black, with only 75,758 white residents left in the city. Whole sections are either vacant or have been bulldozed for safety reasons. A program where people could acquire a home for $1.00 had very few takers. This is a sad story of a once great city. There is plenty of blame to go around, but there is little hope for the future.
In the last few weeks we have heard of teacher sick-outs in Detroit to protest poor pay and conditions in the Detroit public school system. The Detroit public school system was taken over by the state in 2009; the administration was replaced by a emergency manager. This was done to stop the bleeding and try to reverse the financial situation in the district. Enrollment declined from 167,000 in 2000 to 47,000 in 2015. Total debt is now $1,291,993,617. It has run over a $100,000,000 deficit each year for the last 10 years. The deficit this year is expected to be $166,000,000. The district is $53,000,000 behind in their pension payments, with a daily cost of $7600 a day in interest and penalties. They have been behind in payments since 2010. The elected school board has only been allowed to deal with education with no control of finances as they have had the policy of spending money with no respect to reality. The superintendent, Karen Ridgeway, has held the post for 30 years. The per-pupil revenue is $12,931 and the per-pupil expense is $14,444 which are both much higher than the statewide the per-pupil revenue ($9912) and per-pupil expense ($9703). Instruction expense in Detroit is $9051 compared to a statewide amount of $6859. Per-pupil administrative expenses are $4159 in Detroit compared to $2525 for the state. The school district is locally financed at 23.6%, State 52.3%, 24.31% federal. Some years ago they had to stop financing with real-estate taxes as they would have decimated the city further.
The teachers union has sued the state to remove the emergency manager, because they want a pay raise and the schools are deteriorating to the point of concerns of health and safety. The state has pledged $715,000,000 over 10 years to improve the schools, but it is unlikely there are any good results in the offing. There is little chance that the tax base will be expanded or that anyone will agree to make the schools more efficient to bring costs into line with the rest of the state. The declining enrollment leaves everyone behind the curve in keeping costs in line with income available. One has to wonder if this is not a glimpse of the future for other places in the country.
The 70's and 80's saw large increases in crime connected with the cocaine and heroin epidemic. This, coupled with rampant political corruption in contracts and nepotism in the city administration, led to a further decline in the city. In 1991, violent crime rate rose to 2700 crimes per 100,000; in 2003 the arson rate was 6.3 times the national average and murder was 5.1 times the national average. In spite of millions of dollars of aid for rebuilding the city, it continued to decline. The cycle of population decline and then the raising of taxes to regain revenue, followed by more declines and more taxes, resulted in the raising of 5000 vacant homes in 1990 alone. The population has dropped from 1,849,568 in 1950 to 713,777 today. The current population is 82% black, with only 75,758 white residents left in the city. Whole sections are either vacant or have been bulldozed for safety reasons. A program where people could acquire a home for $1.00 had very few takers. This is a sad story of a once great city. There is plenty of blame to go around, but there is little hope for the future.
In the last few weeks we have heard of teacher sick-outs in Detroit to protest poor pay and conditions in the Detroit public school system. The Detroit public school system was taken over by the state in 2009; the administration was replaced by a emergency manager. This was done to stop the bleeding and try to reverse the financial situation in the district. Enrollment declined from 167,000 in 2000 to 47,000 in 2015. Total debt is now $1,291,993,617. It has run over a $100,000,000 deficit each year for the last 10 years. The deficit this year is expected to be $166,000,000. The district is $53,000,000 behind in their pension payments, with a daily cost of $7600 a day in interest and penalties. They have been behind in payments since 2010. The elected school board has only been allowed to deal with education with no control of finances as they have had the policy of spending money with no respect to reality. The superintendent, Karen Ridgeway, has held the post for 30 years. The per-pupil revenue is $12,931 and the per-pupil expense is $14,444 which are both much higher than the statewide the per-pupil revenue ($9912) and per-pupil expense ($9703). Instruction expense in Detroit is $9051 compared to a statewide amount of $6859. Per-pupil administrative expenses are $4159 in Detroit compared to $2525 for the state. The school district is locally financed at 23.6%, State 52.3%, 24.31% federal. Some years ago they had to stop financing with real-estate taxes as they would have decimated the city further.
The teachers union has sued the state to remove the emergency manager, because they want a pay raise and the schools are deteriorating to the point of concerns of health and safety. The state has pledged $715,000,000 over 10 years to improve the schools, but it is unlikely there are any good results in the offing. There is little chance that the tax base will be expanded or that anyone will agree to make the schools more efficient to bring costs into line with the rest of the state. The declining enrollment leaves everyone behind the curve in keeping costs in line with income available. One has to wonder if this is not a glimpse of the future for other places in the country.
Allentown's Mayor may be available to save Detroit ten years from now after he serves his time in prison. It sounds like no one in Detroit would give a rat's ass if he accepted kickbacks.
ReplyDeleteThere does seem to be a similar pattern of corruption in big city democratic politics.
ReplyDeleteWe have our own Detroit - it's called Allentown.
ReplyDelete