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1) "journal statement"  by Admin003 on June 29, 2008 
Senator Clarke’s statement is as follows:

Yesterday, I voted against the Michigan Department of Education budget because it did not contain funding or a directive to require the state to conduct a comprehensive performance audit of the Detroit Public Schools system. I felt that type of audit was important because it would review the finances of the Detroit Public Schools for the purpose of comparing it to the best practices in other school districts, and then to make recommendations on how Detroit Public Schools money could be spent most efficiently to better educate and graduate Detroit Public Schools students.

I asked for a comprehensive examination of the Detroit school finances in order to better spend the money to best educate Detroit schoolchildren. I oppose this resolution because it asks the school Superintendent of Public Instruction to review the school districts financial condition as the first step in a legal process that could lead to the next takeover of the Detroit Public Schools system.

I will not be a part of this. I will do everything I can to fight this. We do not need the school district in Detroit to be crippled by another political maneuver from Lansing. I urge you to vote against this resolution.

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2) "journal statement"  by Admin003 on June 29, 2008 
Senator Clark-Coleman’s statement is as follows:

I was a member of the Legislature back in 1999 when the Legislature decided to take over the Detroit Board of Education. Normally, when you take over a district, it’s because of the finances—you are running deficits. Back then, there was a $90 million surplus. It was not a takeover because of running a deficit. Back then, Governor John Engler took over the Detroit Board of Education and brought in his people to run the district. Over the next five years, the state ran the district. When they turned it back over, instead of a $90 million surplus, there was a $200 million deficit. I think this state played a big role in the deficit that was created then. The state was running the school district and left the district with a $200 million deficit. Now you want to penalize the school district because of what the state did to the school district.

The new superintendent that came in here recognizes that there is a problem there, and she didn’t just sit still. She called in financial experts from the Council of Great City Schools. That is why in the paper today there is a report that the superintendent asked for assistance from the people who are paid to do that—the Council of Great City Schools. They are the ones who went through and identified what needs to be done, so that the superintendent can now do these things. State Superintendent Mike Flanagan is working with that district. It is not like he has just turned them loose and said, “You are on your own.” Mike Flanagan is working with the Detroit School District to right-size it.

So now you want to start down this road of another takeover so that you can completely destroy the school district this time. If there is a $400 million deficit, guess who put that whole issue into place? It was the state’s people who came in and devised the plan to run that district. They ran it into the ground with a $200 million deficit. Then you turn it back over to the board and say, “It’s your fault.” It was not their fault. It was the fault of this state, which took a $90 million surplus and in five years and turned it into a $200 million deficit. Don’t just sit here all pious as if the state had no role in it because the state had a big role in this. The state is responsible for the condition that the district is in now. If the state had not taken it over back in 1999, chances are the district might have been running well right now because they weren’t losing money; they had money.

So before you sit here and prejudge the district, which is trying to get things together. Dr. Calloway did what she was supposed to do; she called in the experts to take a look at the whole system and to advise her. That is why the report is what it is today. When you sit here and prejudge, just look at yourselves because many of you were here back in 1999, and many of you voted to take over a district that was not in deficit. Be careful of what you ask for because you might get it. That is what you did.

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3) 2008 Senate Resolution 209  by admin on January 1, 2001 
Introduced in the Senate on June 28, 2008

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