Duncan Favors Mayoral Control in Detroit

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/07/27/37mct_midetroitmayor.h29.html

Published Online: July 27, 2010

Duncan: Let Voters Decide Mayor's Role With Detroit Schools
By Chastity Pratt Dawsey, Detroit Free Press (MCT)

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last year the Detroit Public Schools were ground zero for public education and the district's crises kept him up at night, but today he said the system faces a "tremendous" opportunity.


In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, Duncan said he is hopeful partly due to the public discussion about giving the mayor authority over the DPS. He is encouraging Detroit and other big cities to consider this path, saying that, with broad support, it can work...

Duncan: Stability, Vision Needed


DPS faces some of the nation's most dire academic and fiscal woes, making it essential for the entire community to unite and rally behind a mayor to take charge of the schools, Duncan said today.

Duncan, who has been traversing the country advocating for mayoral oversight in the nation's largest school districts, said the work to be done to improve DPS is "so difficult and Detroit has to go so far, the system can't do it by itself."

Eliminating the school board could be the way to attract new, long-term leader and plan to DPS.