Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said on Monday that Detroit's public schools should be split between a new community school district and the current district to raise academic performance and avoid financial collapse, Reuters reported yesterday. The new district would be responsible for operations, while the current district would be charged with eliminating a budget deficit. The Republican governor warned that without his plan, which he expects to be introduced in the state legislature this month, the school system risked succumbing to a financial crisis that would not necessarily lead to bankruptcy, but could result in a debt default that would have repercussions for the state and its other school districts. The city of Detroit shed about $7 billion of its $18 billion of debt and obligations when it exited the biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy last December, but the city's school district has been unable to shake off a state-declared financial emergency dating back to 2008.
