The Detroit school board has named Governor Rick Snyder in a federal lawsuit, blaming the governor about the financial trouble of the district on the emergency manager law in Michigan. The lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of more than 50,000 students enrolled since 2011.
WXYZ Detroit reported that attorney Tom Bleakley is representing the students in Detroit Public School. He is a retired trial lawyer from Detroit who is now living in Florida, but decided to go back to the courtroom to fight for Detroit kids.
The lawsuit also names three former emergency managers that were appointed by Gov. Snyder. According to ABC News, Snyder signed into law an emergency funding last month, which amounts to $48.7 million, to keep schools open through the end of the academic year. Moreover, he is also pushing state lawmakers to approve a $720 million restructuring plan that would pay off the operating debt that is consuming the district.
Snyder recently told the media that he would consider dissolving a controversial system he launched back in 2012, with the approval of the emergency managers in Detroit Public School, to run Detroit's lowest-performing schools. The system, which is also known as Education Achievement Authority, has been linked to an ongoing federal corruption investigation. The lawsuit said that it reveals the extent to which the "depraved indifference and damage to the plight of students in Detroit" was granted to fester by the defendant emergency managers, reports The Guardian.
Elena Herrada, a school board member, said that students attending schools in Detroit while under state emergency management have been unprecedentedly harmed by the insufficiency of resources in the classroom. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Snyder said on Thursday that the governor and his office cannot comment on pending litigation.
Several former and current principals, a vendor and a district administrator were also charged with conspiracy to commit bribery after kickbacks were paid for supplies that were never delivered to the schools. From 95,000 in 2009, enrollment has dropped to about 46,000 this year.
