DPS School Board Says State Created Problem it’s Trying to Fix
DPS School Board member LaMar Lemmons weighs in on Republican proposals
This morning on Detroit Today, host Stephen Henderson speaks with Detroit Public Schools Board of Education member LaMar Lemmons about the deficit the district is facing, and how the state proposes fixing the deficit.
“The deficit was created by the state,” says Lemmons, who says increased state oversight or regulation would be unfair and the problems have only gotten worse since the state began intervention under Governor John Engler. Henderson, who covered the school board in the mid-1990s, says the district had a lot of the same problems in the 1990s that it has now.
Looking towards the future of DPS, Lemmons says, “first of all, we want to reduce class size,” and thinks DPS can increase student enrollment “by bringing back programs, [and] having parent engagement. We would recapture those students who are now in charters.”
In terms of past district success, Lemmons says “the number one thing that we did that was stellar, was we created application schools that were performing above state levels.”
Click the audio link below to hear the full conversation.
