State Board Approves Detroit Schools Bailout

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A state board has approved a $150 million emergency loan and other facets of a plan to address massive operating debt in the Detroit school district and to return control to locally elected officials. The three-member Local Emergency Financial Assistance Loan Board OK’d the proposal Monday. It voted to transfer assets of the Detroit Public Schools to a new district and to authorize the elimination or restructuring of debt by borrowing $235 million through the sale of bonds. The votes effectively begin implementing a $617 million state bailout that was enacted into law in June. Current school board members and others urged the board to reject the plan and to implement their proposed alternative. They say the laws, which allow the new district to hire noncertified teachers, are unconstitutional.