The situation
The Board of Canvassers, following the instruction of the Michigan Supreme Court, voted to put PA 4 (The Emergency Manager Law) on the November ballot statewide. (Do we vote yes or no?)
When citizens call for a referendum on a new law, that law is automatically suspended until the referendum is held.
While everyone agrees that PA 4 is suspended, there is also disagreement, including in the courts, about who now has authority over districts in which there had been an emergency manager. The state under AG Schuette has assigned that an older law, Pa 72, the Emergency Financial Manager law, is in effect now that PA 4 has been suspended. In their view, nothing much has changed—Emergency Financial Mangers have just a bit less power than Emergency Managers, and in most cases those who had been emergency managers have been reappointed as emergency financial managers, including roy Roberts, the emergency financial manager Of dps and the director of the board of the new “statewide” district for failing schools, the EAA or Educational Achievement Authority.
But the DPS Board and many others legal experts, community goups, etc., hold that the Emergency Manager Law is also not in place because PA 4, which is now suspended, repealed PA 72. In fact, Michigan statute states that when a law is repealed, the laws that the repealed law repealed are still dead. Thereofre PA 72 was repealed and is not in effect. Rather than partial authority, the Board and others argue, the Board has full authority.
The AG and the supporters of the Emergency Manager system counter that PA 4 was not repealed, it was just suspended, and so PA 72 is back. They argue that the Board has only limited authority, over some academic matters, if any. And essentially, that they have none because there are very few things the board can do that don’t have some financial dimension to them, and the EFM, they argue, is in full control of all financial matters.
In the meantime, the Board met last Thursday and invoking its power voted to cancel the interlocal agreement between dps and emu which established the eaa. Furthermore the board tossed out the EAA contract with teach for America and swore in john telford as interim sutperintendent, who has agreed to work for the towering sum of 1 dollar.
Fearing the board’s power, the ag and the supporters of the em have not only trashed the board in the press, portraying them as power hungry lunatics who don’t care about children, but have also initatied multiple lawsuits to disempower the board. The ag has sued the board saying that 7 of its members who were elected as district representatives in 2011 are serving illegally, because dps is no longer a class one district, whichb must have 100,000 students to be class one, and so those 7 individuals shold be expelled from the board. And they argue that since six votes are required to take any action, since that constutites a quorum, and there are only four leagal at large members of the school board, that the board has no power to take any action—it cannot establish quoroum. But just in case, both the ag and roy Roberts himself are suing the school board because , they say, the board will do irreparable harm to the schools and the children of Detroit.
Roberts case proceeds tomorrow morning at 10 am on the 14th floor of the city county building.