Roy Robert's SUV purchase underscores Detroit Public Schools' continued ...

What is it about company cars and politicians in this town? You’d think people like Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts would know by now that driving an expensive taxpayer-financed vehicle is bad stagecraft when you’re preaching shared sacrifice and the need to do more with less.

Nope.

Just as with Kwame Kilpatrick and the red Navigator , and Martha Reeves and her chauffeured trips to the casino , and John Conyers III’s and his father’s Congressional Escalade , Roberts is catching flack for the $40,000 SUV purchased by the school system for his use.

This situation is a little different than those previous car-related uproars. Roberts is, unlike Kilpatrick, upfront about the vehicle’s cost and purpose. No one is accusing him of improperly using the vehicle for personal reasons, as with Reeves and Conyers.

This is more akin to the time then-school board member Lonnie Bates said he had to fly first-class to inspire young people to achieve. In both cases, the controversial spending isn’t illegal. It just seems unnecessarily wasteful and in bad form.

This is a district where the best teachers dip into their own pockets to buy school supplies for their students, and are expected to take a 10% pay cut.  This is a district with the worst test scores in the nation , a dismal graduation rate and an average ACT score of 14 among the students who do graduate. Oh, and there's also a $327 million deficit. DPS is in perpetual crisis. Shared sacrifice should start at the top, yet it doesn't.

This is more than bad stagecraft. It's a substantive example of DPS' systemic failure to run a lean, clean education-first operation.

It's also Official Detroit's "let them eat cake" moment. To paraphrase “Tropic Thunder:” Everyone knows you never go full Marie Antoinette.

No one has patience for claims that Roberts’ $250,000 salary isn’t as large as comparable superintendents. When DPS is no longer operating under the weight of a nine-figure structural deficit, and when its students achieve at even the modest standards set by comparable school districts, then the top man can talk about pay and benefit parity.

Until then, Roberts can drive his own car for awhile. Since this is all about the kids, he can also eat the cost of gas and write it off on his taxes.  At $250,000 a year, he can afford it.

Obama Administration Exempting Schools From Federal Law's ...

(AP) – State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn’t answered the call.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break.

via Obama Administration Exempting Schools From Federal Law’s Testing Mandate | CNSnews.com .

TAL Commentary: When students fail, the political solution is… stop testing. No Child Left Behind was a dumb statist solution to a problem that is part and parcel of state-mandated-and-funded education — the failure to educate. That’s because education is not the purpose of public education. The purpose of public education is to create a large workforce of teachers and administrators who feed at the public trough and vote Democrat. Children are just a tool they use in order to keep feeding off of taxpayers.

RT @: "The minute you define the purpose of public education as a result on a test, you've ruined it":

"The minute you define the purpose of public education as a result on a test, you've ruined it":

Public Education in America: A New Interpretation of Purpose and Practice:

@ the main purpose of public education

Public Education in America: A New Interpretation of Purpose and Practice:

Primary Education in Ecuador's Chota Valley, Reflections on Education and Social Reproduction in the Development Era

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION? Why Do People Go To School? ... the purpose of education is to promote and facilitate learning, is it not? ...

The Praeger handbook of urban education

However, before trying to address any specific education issues, it is reasonable to first identify the purpose of public education. ...

The public purpose of education and schooling

Congressional edition

THE CHANGING PURPOSE OF EDUCATION. It is apparent at a glance that much of the criticism of the public schools to-day is due to ...

Proceedings of the Education Congress

THE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC WILL EARHART. Director of Music, Public Schools, Pittsburgh The purpose of public school music can uot be stated iu a ...