That's the message Robert Bobb, Detroit Public Schools' emergency financial manager, is delivering to lawmakers, the business community, parents and other stakeholders in the schools and metro Detroit's future.

"The extent to which we improve Detroit Public Schools overall, it benefits not only the city of Detroit but also the entire region," Bobb says. "Improving the Detroit Public Schools academically and creating literally thousands of very strong minds through a system that has a reputation for excellence in education for every kid and every neighborhood, that's our goal. When that is done the entire region becomes much stronger."

Bobb is fighting an uphill battle that includes a dwindling city population, declining revenues and a school board that often seems devoted more to squabbling and self-promotion than to the children it purportedly serves.

He's met those challenges by calling for metro Detroiters to volunteer to help Detroit students learn to read and by putting forth a plan to strengthen the school system's academics. Bobb, a former city manager, says turning around a community requires investment in three major areas: first responder services, which must be tied to a top-notch network of health care institutions; public schools including community colleges; and small local businesses paired with an economic development strategy for the region.

"If we have major investments in those areas and at the end we are successful, particularly in the city of Detroit we will see a repopulation of our city," Bobb says. "We'll be able to bring our middle class back and begin to reduce the high levels of poverty we experience in our city."

The schools often tap the business community for financial support, Bobb says, but its most meaningful contribution could rest with its intellectual power.

"The most significant way the business community can help is through the use of the intellectual resources that it provides every day to get its products to market," he says. Turning around the schools "takes willpower, it takes staying power but most importantly it takes that intellectual power. If every corporation in this area would devote 1,000 hours a year to help [with the reading program], and also bring data to help us determine how well we're performing, we would definitely create a reading revolution in this region."