Sitting in the Ford Fieldhouse right now getting ready for the McCain-Palin town hall — and an email from the state Dept. of Ed. caught my attention.

The state school superintendent, Mike Flanagan, has sent Gov. Jennifer Granholm a letter stating that Detroit Public Schools is in a “serious financial problem.”

According that email statement from the Department of Education, sending that letter means the state will establish a “Review Team” to “examine the district’s finances under the state’s Local Government Fiscal Responsibility Act.”

The Detroit district had put together a “Deficit Elimination Plan” because of its already dire financial circumstances. Flanagan said in the statement that after meeting with school officials in Detroit it became clear an “outside review” was needed.

According to the statement, the “Review Team” has 30 days to assess whether that serious problem is truly a “financial emergency.” If such an emergency is declared, an emergency financial manager would “assume authority over all fiscal matters of the school district and makes all fiscal decisions for the district.”

The action sets in motion that possibility, but Flanagan said in the statement it wasn’t a certainty and stressed the action was not a “state takeover.”

I’ll be keeping my eye on what’s happening in Detroit — your thoughts?

Tony