10/15/2026
Detroit Educators Challenge Rogers’ Outreach
Detroit teachers union leaders today challenged Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike ROGERS’ education record by pointing to his 1999 vote to strip the city’s elected school board of its governing powers as he courts Detroit voters.Speaking at the American Federation of Teachers Michigan building, union President Terrence MARTIN Sr. said the legislation removed families’ ability to hold school decision-makers accountable. Rogers, the then-state Senate majority floor leader, supported the measure as a way to improve schools he argued had failed Detroit children.
“Educators saw communities’ concerns pushed aside and Detroit’s public school system went from a $100 million operating surplus to a $200 million deficit,” Martin said.
Martin, who taught second grade at Detroit’s John Lynch Elementary School from 1998 through 2003, argued that the consequences of the takeover remain visible in deteriorating buildings and heat-related school closures.
The criticism comes as Rogers makes education part of his outreach to the heavily Democratic city. He has promoted a literacy agenda and become involved with the Beyond Basics reading remediation program at Cody High School.
Although Rogers is not expected to win Detroit, additional support there could matter in his race against Democrat Abdul EL-SAYED (See “Rogers Calls Literacy ‘The Civil Rights Issue Of Our Lifetime,’ Trump PAC Spending $15M In MI,” 9/9/26).
Detroit Federation of Teachers President Lakia WILSON-LUMPKINS said elected school boards give residents a direct line of accountability for budgets, staffing and contracts.
Detroit City Council member Denzel McCAMPBELL said appearances at churches and press conferences should not outweigh Rogers’ record.
“Mike Rogers’ record speaks for itself and does not center our needs,” McCampbell said.
What The 1999 Law Changed
Public Act 10 of 1999 replaced the elected board’s governing authority with a seven-member reform board. Then-Detroit Mayor Dennis ARCHER appointed six members; the seventh seat belonged to the state superintendent of public instruction or a designee. A separate state-level board monitored the reform board’s progress.
Supporters of the legislation, signed by Gov. John ENGLER, cited poor academic performance, dropout rates and deteriorating buildings.
The reform board’s tenure was followed by a return to elected governance. Detroit voters rejected continuation of the reform-board arrangement in 2004, elected a school board in November 2005 and regained local control in January 2006.
The state intervened again in 2009 through emergency management, which substantially curtailed the elected board’s authority. A separate 2016 restructuring created the Detroit Public Schools Community District to operate schools while the old district remained to pay legacy debt. The new district’s elected board took office in January 2017.
Those intervening changes distinguish the 1999 takeover from the later emergency-manager system.
Rogers’ Argument At The Time
During the 1999 Senate debate, Rogers said Detroit ministers had described a single mother who worked two jobs and organized transportation for her son because she feared crime, gangs and drugs along his route to school.
Once her son arrived, Rogers said, she still questioned whether he would receive the education he deserved.
“If we could channel all the hubbub and hullabaloo about anger in the process to those 180,000 kids who have been abandoned for 30 years, this problem would have gone away 30 years ago,” Rogers said on the Senate floor.
He argued the legislation would give families tools to build a better community and provide hope for Detroit students.
At today’s event, Wilson-Lumpkins cautioned against allowing tensions between some Black and Middle Eastern residents to become a blanket judgment of El-Sayed.
“However, we don’t want to generalize that relationship, that poor relationship, and heap that onto Abdul El-Sayed,” she said. “As Black folks, we hate to be generalized, stereotyped, discriminated against and facing tropes.”
Black leaders in Detroit criticized GOP Sen. candidate Mike Rogers regarding past legislation on local schools and voters.
