Detroit schools closed again due to teacher sickouts
More than half of Detroit’s public schools are closed Tuesday due to teacher protests, according to a district spokeswoman.
All but three of the city’s 97 public schools were closed on Monday after more than 1,500 teachers called out sick in protest, school district spokeswoman Michelle A. Zdrodowski said.
There are more than 3,000 teachers in the district, according to state documents.
The union which represents many of them, the Detroit Federation of Teachers, told its members they don’t expect them to show up for work Tuesday either. (Detroit parents — the public school system said on its Facebook page that they usually can confirm if school will open between 5 a.m. to 7 a.m.)
Here’s why.
Detroit’s Public School system is deep in the red — they have more than half a billion dollars of operating debt, the governor’s office has said.
Detroit teachers were told by DFT Interim President Ivy Bailey on Saturday that the school system only has enough money to pay its teachers through June 30. Some school employees can elect to have their pay spread out over the entire year rather than the school year, which means that if they don’t get paid after June 30, they’ve already started working for free, DFT argues.
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Teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan. So to protest the poor conditions that educators say they and students must deal with, Detroit Public School teachers have relied on the “sickout” method — calling out sick en-masse, forcing schools to close.
In January, teachers staged a sickout to protest dilapidated and dangerously unsanitary conditions — including rat and roach infestations, black mold and falling ceiling panels — forcing the closure of dozens of schools. A judge later ruled that teachers could continue staging the sickouts after DPS brought the union to court over the issue.
That’s why they are using sickouts to protest the news about their pay.
Every teacher who calls in sick should be made to do what parents have to do when their children are sick... bring in a note from a doctor stating there was actually an illness.
Parents cannot decide for themselves if their children need a day at home to rest from a cold or any other benign illness. They have to take a day off work, drag the child to the doctor, pay for a doctor's visit (either through insurance or out of pocket... and co-pays are demanded at time of service..) and secure a note from the receptionist that the child was actually in the office and seen by a doctor.
Teachers don't deserve to be excluded from this onerous mandate, especially when it is being used to browbeat citizens. Parents are dragged into court and jailed if they can't explain the absence of their children from school.
All those lost federal dollars because the seats weren't filled... all those parents who had to make arrangements and spend money they didn't have, for babysitters, or stay out of work losing their pay...
yeah, the teachers should have to present the Mayor with doctor's notes. If they can't they should lose their jobs.
(And yes, I know it doesn't work like that..)