By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

DETROIT – A state-appointed emergency financial manager charged with turning around the Motor City’s failing schools is making significant progress with student attendance, which has already hit 90 percent this school year.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

“The feat is significant for (Detroit Public Schools), which has struggled with declining enrollment and chronic truancy for years, especially in the first month and last weeks of school, when attendance has often dropped to under 50 percent,” the Detroit News reports.

Ninety percent of DPS students – 46,668 kids – were in school this week. That’s a good sign for the financially strapped district as the state’s Oct. 3 student count day approaches. Michigan schools get about $7,190 per student from the state based on the number of students in attendance that day. DPS officials budgeted revenue for 49,852 students.

District leaders partnered with the Detroit Parent Network to knock on about 2,000 doors to encourage the city’s kids to come to school. The district held dozens of open houses and employed 41 truancy officers to encourage attendance. A new calling system also made 177,000 calls to parents of children who didn’t show up for class, the Detroit News reports.

Roy Roberts, the district’s emergency financial manager, told the newspaper things are looking up for Detroit schools.

“I continue to witness that attitudes are different across our schools this year,” he said.

“This is based on an overall positive direction moving forward, a smooth start operationally and academically for the new school year, a comprehensive effort in late summer aimed at ensuring parent and family readiness for the first day of school, and other new attendance initiatives,” Roberts said.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

It’s amazing what happens when the power of organized labor is checked, and school leaders are allowed to make important decisions based on what’s best for students and the community.

Decades of union strife, dysfunction on the school board, poor classroom instruction and corrupt administration took its toll on student attendance and the district’s budget.

“Two years ago, less than 50 percent of students showed up for the first day of class at DPS,” according to the Detroit News.

When school attendance drops below 75 percent, Michigan school districts lose state funding based on the number of children who are not in school. That cost DPS $4.2 million in 2010-11, the News reports.

Thanks to Roberts and his leadership team, it looks like things will be different this year.