Black Thought at the Highest Level

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My city, my city…

In Issues and Politics on June 3, 2009 at 3:51 pm

What’s up fam,

Tragic news in Detroit and not from the auto industry. Apparently,

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb released audit findings this morning that show sloppy bookkeeping at 189 of 194 school buildings, some of which could result in criminal charges. The tax-exempt schools also may have lost about $1.7 million that was wrongly paid in sales taxes, a meeting with a vendor revealed this morning

The audits showed loans made to school officials using school funds, missing funds from activities, school funds diverted to personal accounts, principals writing and signing checks, untimely deposits and money taken home by staff.

I am very strict about money and ethics so I get very upset when I see systematic fraud and mismanagement. Every little bit of money stolen adds up and over time, millions of dollars are being stolen from kids. This is out of control, especially when you have a culture of politics where the dominant discussion is who has control of the schools instead of making education better and cleaning up the waste and fraud right in front of our eyes. Is public integrity not cool any more? What gives? Frankly, I am tired of  the old school politicians and administrators that know they do wrong but talk about the need for young people to take the reins. I don’t think Detroit is beyond saving but it is shameful to consider the type of city you left for us. Thanks,

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

  1. I agree, I am tired of all this mess. What bugs me is that through all this talk that Bob Bobb is doing and everything that is coming out about DPS, what the students are learning never seems to come up. Just where the money is or isn’t going.

    I hope they get this money stuff together so school can be about what it should be… education.

    Reply
    Billione 3 June 2009 at 8pm

  2. This is maddening.

    To me, this shows 2 things.

    1. The current system is clearly broken. It appears that the oversight of DPS was about as useful as the oversight of AIG.
    2. These problems are not solved by private or charter schools. An ethos of dishonesty, robbery, irresponsibility and flippancy does not go away when schools are funded by something other than tax dollars. You undoubtedly will here someone use this as a springboard into a diatribe about why public education is broken and should be replaced with private education (look at what happened in New Orleans). Public education, generally speaking, is not broken. The people who have run it in the city, however, very well may be.
    Reply
    Garlin II 3 June 2009 at 9pm

  3. Here’s a letter from the DPS Emergency Financial Manager that outlines some changes to the central office of the district.

    Thanks to @richardsession for the link.

    One Love. One II.

    Reply
    Garlin II 4 June 2009 at 12pm