Last month, I wrote about the selection of John Covington to run a new group in Michigan called Education Achievement Authority (EAA) tasked with helping to work with failing schools. I also wrote that he faked a conflict with his former employer to get out of his contract and could make as much as $1.4 million in four years. Today, we learn that the school district he last ran, the Kansas City School District, has lost its accreditation.
A newly appointed chancellor charged with turning around Michigan and Detroit’s worst-performing schools was himself the head of a district that failed to meet education standards, officials said Tuesday.Missouri education officials on Tuesday revoked the accreditation of the Kansas City School District after it failed for several years to meet most of the state’s performance standards.
The move comes less than a month after John Covington abruptly resigned as the Kansas City superintendent to become chancellor of the new Education Achievement System, which will run the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in the state. It will begin with about 38 schools in Detroit during the 2012-13 school year and then expand to the rest of the state.
He is due to start the job next week that pays a base salary of $225,000.
Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts doubled down in his support of Covington:
He was given a $175,000 signing bonus and four-year contract last month by the Michigan authority’s 11-member executive committee, which is chaired by Roy Roberts, emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools.Roberts said he is confident that the right person has been brought in to lead and build this new school district starting in Detroit.
“It does not taint one bit. We think we have a great person,” Roberts said today.
This is the guy who we trust to provide educational leadership and who we have working to help sort out the poorest-performing schools in Michigan. This is the man chosen by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to fill that position. THIS is why Michigan Republicans can not be trusted to do right by our educational system and our educators.
