When Roy Roberts became the emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools (now Detroit Public Schools Community District, or DPSCD), he took on the nearly impossible challenge of turning around a system that wasn’t doing justice to the nearly 70,000 students currently enrolled in the district at the time. However, instead of shying away from the challenge, Roberts took the proverbial bull by the horns and embarked on a major shake-up that was slated to occur during the following school year. While some applauded Roberts’ efforts, others were concerned about what the changes would mean to students, teachers, and the neighborhoods that many of these schools called home.
School Closures Just the Beginning
From overcrowding in Detroit Public School classrooms to facing bankruptcy, the challenges abounded for this Michigan school district. According to the Huffington Post, Roberts planned to close nine public schools and convert four more into charters in an effort to repair a broken system. This move was predicted to save Detroit Public Schools $7.5 million in annual operating costs, money that Roberts hoped to put toward educating children rather than maintaining empty classrooms.
"Rather than continue to support buildings that are far underutilized…we will consolidate,” Roberts was reported saying at Huffington Post. “We have been using an outdated educational model that we must discard,” Roberts added.
The Detroit Free Press reported that by that fall, Detroit Public Schools would be downsized to around 50,000 students, down from the nearly 70,000 then enrolled in the school district and one-third of the district’s enrollment just a decade earlier. Roberts also hoped that many of the 800 to 1,000 teachers eligible for retirement would choose to take it at the end of that school year, reducing staffing and providing the district the ability to breathe new life into school faculty.
“If we aren’t bold in what we’re doing, we’re going to fail,” Roberts told the Detroit Free Press in another report. “I looked at major urban school districts across the country and everyone is failing or about two points different than we are. We’re not alone. But we’ve got to change things.”
School districts across the country continue to face many of the same challenges, including enrollment declines, budget pressures, and school performance concerns. Parents interested in these issues may also want to read Why 82% of Public Schools are Failing, explore The 15 Biggest Failures of the American Public Education System, or learn more about School Choice in 2026: What Parents Must Know.
For additional context on enrollment trends nationwide, the National Center for Education Statistics provides current public school data and research.
Schools Moving to the Education Achievement Authority
Editor's Note (2026)
The events discussed below occurred during Detroit's school restructuring efforts in 2011 and 2012. The Education Achievement Authority (EAA) was later dissolved in 2017, and its schools were returned to Detroit Public Schools Community District. Current district information is available through Detroit Public Schools Community District.
In addition to school closures, Roberts’ ambitious plan included the transfer of 15 of the lowest-performing schools to the Education Achievement Authority. The EAA was intended to be a separate school district for those schools that had shown three consecutive failing years in terms of performance, removing them from DPS jurisdiction entirely.
“Those 15 schools that we will name Thursday, the state will assume the responsibility for the education of all the kids…” Roberts told the Detroit Free Press. “We don’t know if the union will go over and be a part of the EAA yet…I can make the decision for them not to go to the EAA. The key will be: Can we have a union go to the EAA and have…a flexible agreement so that people can educate kids?”
When asked about the teachers who were currently working in those schools, Roberts responded, “We will have too many people, and a lot of people will get laid off. And EAA will end up hiring new people or hire people willing to come to work without a union.”
Seven more schools that had not been up to par would remain in DPS, ripe for a yearlong turnaround effort. According to Click on Detroit, this move would keep more dollars in the district while separating out the handful of schools that appeared to have the potential for improvement. Roberts explained that he wanted to give these schools an additional two years to get their scores up to par on their own since they only had one year of poor performance documented thus far.
School turnaround efforts remain a major focus of education policy. The U.S. Department of Education continues to support school improvement initiatives and accountability efforts across the country. Families interested in how school performance is measured can also explore Public School Review's resources on Evaluating Public Schools and How to Choose a Public School for Your Child.
Parents Say Information About Changes Is Insufficient
Roberts and his team traveled to many of the schools that would be involved in the changes to relay decisions regarding those schools. However, parents at many of those schools complained that information was insufficient, and some were even considering leaving their neighborhood schools if their questions weren’t answered soon.
“They can’t tell us who’s going to be the principal or what staff is going over there,” Monique Baker McCormick, a parent of a student at Ludington Magnet Middle School, told Detroit Free Press. “If they could, there could be some comfort for parents. This is about the destruction of DPS…”
McCormick told Detroit Free Press that Ludington's parents were told the school would move into the same building as Langston Hughes Academy the following year. However, she also said that she and other Ludington parents had threatened to leave Ludington if Roberts followed through with his moving plan.
“To me, it’s an experiment,” McCormick stated. “Why Ludington? Why attack something that works?”
Pamela Miller-Malone, a spokesperson for EAA, attempted to explain some of the changes that would take place with the schools moving to EAA’s district by stating to Detroit Free Press, “It’s a new approach to delivering educational programs and services with flexibility and autonomy. There’s a very deep-seated commitment to changing the culture and creating a culture of achievement.”
However, Miller-Malone’s explanation was not enough to pacify many of the parents concerned about how the changes in DPS would affect their children directly.
“That’s just educator-ese,” Shaton Berry, president of the Michigan PTA, told Detroit Free Press in response to Miller-Malone. “That’s not telling me what’s going to be going on in the school.”
“I need them to say how it is going to change things,” Berry added. “What’s going to be so transformational about this system? Does that mean each kid is going to get a laptop? What does this mean?”
Families evaluating school options today may also be interested in comparing different educational models through Public School Choice, Magnet Programs & Charter Options — What's Best? and learning more about The Ongoing Debate Over School Choice.
Many of the questions raised by parents were ultimately addressed through subsequent district restructuring efforts. Today, Detroit Public Schools Community District serves approximately 45,000 students and continues to focus on academic achievement, attendance, graduation rates, and student support services. Additional district and statewide education data can be found through the Michigan Department of Education.
Conclusion
The Detroit Public Schools restructuring plan represented one of the most ambitious school turnaround efforts in the district's history. While the proposed closures, staffing reductions, and school transfers generated significant concern among parents and educators, they also reflected the difficult decisions many urban districts face when addressing declining enrollment and persistent academic challenges. More than a decade later, Detroit Public Schools Community District continues to evolve, focusing on student achievement, operational stability, and long-term educational improvement.
