Group rejects bill giving DPS's Bobb academic control

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http://www.freep.com/article/20100528/NEWS01/100528052/Group-rejects-bill-giving-DPS-s-Bobb-academic-control

Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb lost a round in Lansing this week when a House education subcommittee indicated it would not push forward a bill that would give him academic control over the district.

Instead, the subcommittee voted to recommend a bill that would allow a three-person panel — including the state school superintendent, Michigan’s treasury director and director of the state’s Office of Budget and Management — to oversee emergency financial managers in school districts.

Bobb had made a personal appeal to the subcommittee, arguing that academic emergencies are linked to financial emergencies, therefore, he should have control over the school district’s academic plan along with its financial one.

“Finances and academics are inextricably linked. Any legislation that further confuses this obvious point is not helpful,” said DPS spokesman Steve Wasko. “Parents are seeking a straightforward single line of accountability, especially given years of mismanagement that has gotten DPS to the regrettable state that resulted in the financial and academic emergencies we, as a community, now face.”

[Hannah Bell]

1. good.