Empower mayor to aid schools, Granholm says

Is she out of her mind? Detroit is already in bad shape and DPS is in even worse shape. Both needs to lay people off and Governor Granholm wants to put more pressure on the Mayor. Now if the City of Detroit was in good standing, then I could understand, but at this stage NO NO NO NOOOOOOO!(Screaming)

We have too many under qualified individuals running things and making major decisions. Michiganders and especially Detroiters, need to do their homework and check it over before they turn it in. Unlike Chicago, New York City and Washington, they are not the worst City to reside in right now. Michigan is the last place people would settle in and move their families, not gonna happen. I hope that does not happen because if it do poor mayor elect. Here is the article from the Free Press....

Governor Granholm said today she wants to see Detroit’s new mayor given a strong hand in running what she called Detroit’s “broken” school system, similar to mayors in Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C.

And she said she would back whatever Lansing could do to make it happen.


“I’d like to empower the citizens to empower the mayor,” she said. Granholm said she’s privately discussed the question with mayoral candidates. Some have publicly expressed interest in giving the mayor some authority over Detroit’s schools.


“The quality of life is so tied to education in the city that having a mayor that has a commitment to making education work in the city is very important to the citizens,” she said.


In an interview with the Free Press editorial board, Granholm also said she does not favor a plan by the Michigan Education Association – the state’s largest teachers union – to entice thousands of teachers into retirement by boosting their monthly pension benefits with a sweetener. She said the plan would place too large a strain on the state teacher retirement system.


Instead, Granholm said, she would consider paying teachers eligible for retirement a onetime bonus to retire. She said she’d also like to see school districts offer bonuses to older teachers in some areas such as math to stay on the job instead of retire.


The MEA says the mass retirements would greatly reduce costs for school districts, which would fill those jobs with younger teachers at much lower pay.


A day after her State of the State address in Lansing, Granholm said she also will ask state employees to “make sacrifices” to help avert a budget crisis, but did not say how. She said she would not take away state health benefits from retired state workers because ”they were made a promise” of those benefits upon retirement.


We will see in the near future what will be done. So for now, Keep It Real Detroit!