Detroit Public Schools Auctioning off Airplane to Raise Cash

Detroit Public Schools auction
(Biddergy.com)

Detroit Public Schools has apparently found a way to raise quite a bit of cash in recent months to help combat its chronic budget problems – auctioning off the district’s surplus junk.

In an online auction today through Biddergy.com, DPS is selling a dilapidated T-39A North American Sabreliner midsized business jet and a 1969 American AA-1 that’s missing its wings, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The planes appear to have raked in a combined $6,740.

Since October, DPS has raised $372,000 through 25 online auctions of “surplus or obsolete” property, the news site reports.

The auction description for the T-39A says the plane was donated to the district by the U.S. Air Force for its aerospace program, and “is in unknown operating condition and appears to have been sitting for a number of years,” according to the Free Press.

Purging the district of unneeded items is, of course, a good thing, but these auctions beg several important questions: How much have Detroit taxpayers shelled out over the years to store all of the district’s “surplus” junk? How much more of there is it?

And most importantly, how many other large metropolitan school districts with massive budget issues across the country are also paying to house piles of junk?

 

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