There was a time not too long ago when Detroit Public Schools had 160,000 students.
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Unlike the Senate, the House plan would prohibit current labor contracts from being transferred to the new district and – in an apparent swipe at the union after the sick-outs – enact tougher anti-strike provisions such as boosting fines and letting the state superintendent and attorney general challenge strikes as illegal.
“We want to be in school teaching children”, said Randi Weingarten, national president of the American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents Detroit teachers. Now, about 46,000 students attend the district’s 97 schools.
In a letter to teachers Tuesday, Rhodes wrote that the school system “recognizes the contractual obligation to pay teachers what they have earned and we assure all teachers that we will honor that legal obligation”.
Detroit teachers returned to classrooms today after the district’s emergency manager pledged to pay employees for work already done, despite the city school system’s financial troubles.
“The plan the House approved today puts Detroit kids first”, said state Rep. Aaron Miller (R). “But you can not in good conscience ask anybody to work without a guarantee they’re going to be paid”.
The seven-bill plan aims to ensure that the newly created district could spend more on academics if freed of debt payments equaling $1,100 per student.
The district – considered the worst academically of its size in the country – has been under continuous state oversight since 2009.
After two days of teacher sickouts, DPS students were back in class Wednesday and those sickouts seem to have given Lansing a fresh sense of urgency to get a bailout deal completed. Some estimate it will actually cost $800 million to fully bail out Detroit Public Schools. The union was told over the weekend by state-appointed transition manager Steven Rhodes that there would be no money after June 30 to pay teachers who have chosen to have their paychecks spread out over the entire year.
About two-thirds of Detroit teachers receive their annual salary in 26 installments, according to the union, and they risk not being paid for any work they do after April 28.
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Democrats argued the omission would not address root problems at the schools, while Republicans say they worry including the commission would limit charter schools in the city.
