Maybe all your teachers calling in sick wouldn’t be such a great thing. On May 2-3, more than 1500 teachers in the Detroit public school district called in sick, forcing the majority of the 97 schools in the district to close for two days. These teachers were protesting a pay freeze that would go into effect on June 30 when the district is predicted to run out of money. Over 500 community members populated a rally outside of one school district administration building. Teachers and parents are pressuring Michigan officials to pass an education reform worth $715 million to fund salaries past June 30.
In the entire Detroit public school system, there are about 47,000 enrolled students, and teachers get paid $63,716 average annual salary. Whether people support or oppose the teachers’ decision to protest, everyone affected agrees that the students are the ones facing the brunt of the consequences and that a solution needs to be reached quickly. The district is in an operating debt of $515 million and is spending an annual $1100 per student for debt service. Legislation is in the approval process to fund the schools.
Teachers in Detroit have used wholesale sick days as a form of protest before. In January, they held a sickout in opposition against poor building conditions including rats, roaches, black mold and crumbling ceilings. This forced dozens of schools to close. Sick-outs aren’t the only things ailing Detroit schools. Besides crumbling buildings, resources are in high demand but low supply, math and reading scores are the lowest of the nation’s largest cities and there is a bribery scandal happening in the middle of it all. While lawmakers have been working towards a long-term solution for the debt, overcrowding and low performance, teachers and parents want to see action.
Some are blaming teachers for being selfish and jeopardizing the children’s education. Others say that the teachers don’t have the resources or locations to teach the children well. When the children don’t have school to go to, some parents are trying to teach them at home, whether by getting them to work on their school assignments or taking them to places like museums.
After a compromise, the teachers agreed to return to work on Wed. May 4. The district agreed to pay them for the remainder of the school year.
“As an administrator, I am sympathetic to the concerns of the teachers in Detroit, because they are experiencing very poor working conditions and a system that is truly broken… My concern for the Detroit situation is that there is going to be a damaging effect to the students in Detroit. While the issues raised deserve serious consideration, I believe there are other ways and other forums to ensure those concerns are heard without having such a negative effect on the student population,” Freedom High School principal William Deal, said.