Michigan governor faces yet another lawsuit – this time over Detroit schools

Emergency manager law causing ‘serious and permanent’ damage
by allowing Rick Snyder to appoint unelected officials to run school
system, lawsuit claims

Ryan Felton in Detroit
Thursday 7 April 2016 17.12 BST

Detroit public schools’ students are experiencing “serious and permanent” damage from Michigan governor Rick Snyder’s appointment of multiple emergency managers to run the district, according to an expansive federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

The lawsuit, which aims to cover more than 58,000 students, said Michigan’s emergency manager law allows for Snyder to appoint an unelected individual to “rule by decree” over the school system.

“Michigan’s emergency manager law and related practices were used to compromise and damage the quality of education received by DPS students with life­long consequences in the name of financial urgency,” according to the 110-page complaint.

The case comes amid a tumultuous period for Snyder, who was named Wednesday in a racketeering suit over the city of Flint, Michigan’s two-year water crisis. An emergency manager appointed by Snyder, Darnell Early, oversaw the city of Flint from September 2013 to January 2015 as emergency manager, before becoming emergency manager for the Detroit public schools. He resigned from that role in February.

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