They called for a forensic audit of the Detroit Public Schools and a guarantee they would be paid for their work. The new bills differ from a bipartisan $720 million plan approved by the Senate in March.
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The GOP-led House could vote on the idea later this week, but differences would still need to be resolved with the Republican-controlled Senate.
Almost all of Detroit’s public schools were also closed on Tuesday as teachers protest a funding gap that could mean lost paychecks.
More than 45,000 students are missing class because of the sick-outs.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten pointed out that it’s unfortunate timing- today is National Teacher’s Appreciation Day. “But you can not in good conscience ask anybody to work without a guarantee they’re going to be paid”.
The district has been under continuous state oversight since 2009 and led by a series of emergency managers who have tried to cut down its debt and millions of dollars in annual deficits. Current transition manager and former federal judge Steven Rhodes, who oversaw the citys bankruptcy, warned over the weekend that almost $50 million in emergency spending that the state approved in March will run out by June 30.
Gov. Rick Snyder proposed overhauling the Detroit Public Schools a year ago, but legislators are at odds over issues such as charter schools, labor contracts and how quickly an elected school board takes power.
Chaker’s skepticism of some of the legislative goals was reiterated by DPS teacher Tamika Morgan at the rally in front of the Fisher Building Tuesday morning.
Another protest and a union meeting are planned Tuesday.
Let us be clear. Detroit’s schools are expected to be out of cash starting July 1.
A House committee on Tuesday approved a $500 million plan to restructure Detroit’s ailing school district by paying off enormous operating debt and creating a new district. Pscholka said it doesn’t matter who gets blamed for Detroit schools’ long-lasting problems, and that “the future of Detroit’s schoolchildren…is on the line”.
The mass sick-outs that started late a year ago with just a small group of teachers, however, angered Republicans, who complained that the protest did not help their efforts to pass the bills.
“Teacher strikes are illegal in MI and that’s just what this is”.
“Their selfish and misguided plea for attention only makes it harder for us to enact a rescue plan and makes it harder for Detroit’s youngest residents to get ahead and build a future for themselves”, Cotter said.
State Rep. Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis, said he was dismayed when he heard Sunday that the DPS teachers were threatening a sick-out, which ended up closing almost all of the district’s schools.
Monique Baker McCormick’s daughter is an 11th grader at Cass Tech.
“It’s astonishing that teachers and other school employees have been working diligently to educate our kids in under-resourced schools with deplorable conditions, yet they had to fight to get what they’re due. So I don’t blame them at all for fighting for what they deserve”.
The school district had no immediate comment. At a news conference that day, officials from the Detroit Federation of Teachers called on the district to hold public hearings so teachers could air their concerns.
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“We’re putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound over and over and over again because we don’t have accurate numbers, and the state is responsible for this district now”.
