A bizarre story from Detroit. Teachers are holding a “sick-out” to protest the fact that they won’t be paid for working. They have been told that they should return to work it there is no guarantee that they will be paid. The teachers have mortgages, rent, normal expenses. They don’t understand why they should be expected to work without pay. City officials, who do get paid, say the teachers are selfish.
Teachers are not volunteers. Why doesn’t the state of Michigan take responsibility for funding the schools?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The way this is being done is particularly vile. Teachers who chose to have their pay spread out over the entire year have been told that money they’ve already earned will not be paid to them over the summer, money that in theory DPS should still have in escrow for the teachers The teachers should all sue, I don’t see how they could possibly lose in a rational world, but therein lies the rub, there’s nothing rational about Snyder or the pseudo government of emergency managers in Michigan.
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” ‘My union has informed me that the only way to remedy this is to push legislators to vote for the passage of legislation that will destroy public education in Detroit,”‘ Howland-Bolton continues. ‘Legislation that, if passed, prioritizes paying off a debt to the state (incurred entirely by state-appointed emergency managers — remember our district had a budget surplus when the state took over) over educating kids. I will not advocate for the passage of such legislation. I work for DPS, and it’s a shame, and it’s not right, but I’m used to not getting paid.’
“While the funding issue is real, there appears to be a double paradox. The teachers have been told — by Judge Rhodes originally, but now by their union representation, i.e. Bailey — that the only way to get paid is to push for Lansing to pass the DPS legislation, which includes a $715 million loan.
“But what if the teachers don’t agree with the Lansing legislation?
“This sentiment was reiterated by fellow DPS teacher Sarah Jardine, who wrote a response to Bailey as well:
” ‘We are being threatened by our district that, if Lansing doesn’t pass the very legislation that threatens democracy in Detroit, we won’t be getting paid.’ ”
from:
http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2016/05/02/are-detroit-teachers-being-pressured-to-support-dps-legislation-in-order-to-get-paid
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This demonstration is the standard media dance to put pressure on the legislature to pass the Governor’s DPS reorganization plan, which separates the DPS debt into a separate entity, and permits a different entity, a new DPS, to take over the schools and operate them without any of their income being siphoned off for debt service. A fresh start, in other words for the DPS.
But the DPS hasn’t gotten good press recently. Some principals have pled guilty to taking kickbacks from a vendor. The trials of others are pending. The former (resigned) appointed emergency manager of the DPS was the same person who was the emergency manager of Flint when the water system source was shifted from the city of Detroit to dirty water from the Flint river. The new DPS emergency manager, Judge Rhodes, supervised the bankruptcy of Detroit city, and generally is credited with doing a good job.
Now teachers claim not to believe Judge Rhodes that there is not enough money in the school account to pay teachers on the 12 month plan through the summer. I believe him, but the union wants an audit. But the judge says they can’t afford an audit. But teacher strikes in Michigan are illegal. You can call them ‘sick-ins’ but that fig leaf is transparent.
However, Governor Snyder, even though brutally and opportunistically vilified by Democrats over the Flint water disaster, is not a Reagan, who simply fired the air-traffic controllers for striking and hired new staff.
Everyone in Michigan wants to see the DPS set on a sound financial footing and operating smoothly, and is grudgingly accepting of the notion that the state HAS to pony up the cash, because there is no one else to do it.
The delay arises because the state doesn’t want to be on the hook for yet another bailout 5 or more years down the road arising from the kind of cronyism, corruption, plunder and deceit which has characterized the district for 30 years or more under its elected board. Outstate remembers the limos that brought every board member to meetings.
And so it goes.
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Maybe instead of funding the new arena for the Illitch family, we could fund the schools. This state has such screwed up spending priorities that it will not be fixed, but further harmed by the state.
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What an amazing spin to justify crime on the part of the state and to defend the indefensible: refusing to uphold your contractual obligations to teachers and leaving them unable to live over the summer.
When I sign my contract in June I am promised pay through the following May. Kickbacks and corruption notwithstanding, the district is obligated to meet their contractural obligations under the law despite conservative desire for fiscal restraint and a need to punish teachers for not being conservatives themselves.
Harlan, what are you going to give up to ensure solvency? What money promised to you can be taken? How about your Social Security? Pull up those bootstraps and do YOUR part man. Live your ideology! You are open to taking the livelihood of others in the name of pragmatism. Do it to yourself too.
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Seems pretty simple to me. If you work, you get paid.
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Um, Harlan, DPS has been under some type of EM for the last 17 years. The state has taken a bad situation and worsened it. While I agree with some of your post, the following line is factually incorrect (or a typo): “Now teachers claim not to believe Judge Rhodes that there is not enough money in the school account to pay teachers on the 12 month plan through the summer.”
The teachers do believe Rhodes because he said the very opposite of this. Rhodes stated that DPS would NOT be able to pay beyond June 30. Read the article where he says he can’t guarantee that the money will be paid. A guarantee would end the chaos.
This is what the Republicans want. Chaos, fear and uncertainty. All the more reason to go the NOLA route for Detroit schools. Get rid of those pesky unions who have nothing to do with DPS’s financial situation. All they’ve done is the nearly impossible work of trying to bring order to the lives of children in a city that is deeply impoverished and uncertain. Teaching in Detroit is a hugely demanding job (when you have to serve ALL who enroll and try to keep them). I think compensation is not too much to ask.
Lastly, I’m tired of hearing Republicans say it’s all about the kids.” Teaching is one of the few jobs where people think it’s about service. Last time I checked, the bank doesn’t allow me to live in my house for free because I teach. No one ever says that people should do their jobs because it’s about the job, not the money. Accountants are never asked to balance books for free because it’s all about the books. Lawyers aren’t asked to argue trials for free because representing the client is the right thing to do.
Teaching is a job. Not volunteer work. (And I’ll add that DPS teachers have seen imposed pay cuts and increased benefit contributions under more than one of these EMs.)
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“But the DPS hasn’t gotten good press recently. ”
How is the governor’s press going recently?
Why can’t he and the state legislature perform the minimum requirements of their jobs in a timely fashion?
“Paying employees” wasn’t a high priority for these people who are supposedly “running the state like a business” ?
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@Jon (below) – and here are the “good ole boys” in Michigan, talking 1st: sports – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHTPer5FFE4
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You work. You get paid what you were promised you would get if you worked.
Where are all those rheephorm-minded billionaires that claim to be for education? They should be first in line to offer assistance.
But I’m not holding my breath…
😎
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This situation is absurd. It is like filling a swimming pool with water and the water is not free and then drilling a hole in one of the walls while someone places a large container to collect the water draining from the hole. That “someone” gets the water while everyone else gets an empty pool. “Corporate ed reform” is “that someone” and the pool is the school system and they are draining public education of vast funding through the likes of the testing industry (just being one example) . Think of all those testing industry affiliates whose careers and salaries are centered around this money drain whether it involves updated software, consultants, data experts, a plethora of test prep materials continually changing and needing to be updated. Do we need these useless tests? First and foremost do we need megabillioniare corporate “ed reformers” with no education experience (practical or higher ed-wise) who are supposedly self-appointed “experts”??? Hell no! It is INFURIATING that anyone should demand these Detroit teachers work for free. Will they have to erect a tent city for living? Food and shelter does not come free for anyone. Are teachers somehow less than human? The spotlight needs to be COMPLETELY TURNED ON THE REAL PROBLEM!!! The INSTIGATORS OF THIS MESS who are demanding and expecting teachers work for free while they drain the system of money for their own benefit should be stopped … they should be going without their salaries RIGHT NOW before they have any voice at all in this matter.
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I posted about this on my own blog, Teachers in Distress. I titled it “Why Teachers Can’t Win.” The Detroit teachers and their union were criticized yesterday on Morning Joe. Even Mike Barnacle piled on in agreement with Joe Scarborough about the “selfishness” of the teachers on the sick out. I would venture to guess neither has a clue what it is like to walk in any teacher’s shoes and I bet they have always been paid for work rendered. Teachers are expected to be selfless. It is a ridiculous proposition. I hope the Michigan legislature decides to appropriate the necessary funds…but I am struck by the irony that this is Teacher Appreciation Week. What a funny way of showing their appreciation for their hard working teachers.
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I don’t understand why the state legislature and the governor aren’t being held accountable.
Why didn’t they get their jobs done in time to pay people?
Were they paid this week?
Why does accountability never reach the people who are actually in power? The multimillionaire cable tv celebrities are very hard on lower level people, yet they give the people in charge a pass.
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Do you have the email address for Joe Scarborough? I can’t find it on the MSNBC website.
What if Joe is forced to work over the summer and MSNBC refuses to pay and honor his contract?
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further correction… the “corporate ed reformers” should have NO SAY in this matter to begin with!
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Ah, welcome to the world of the public school teacher. Not only are they blamed for all of societies woes, but now they create them for free.
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Yes. Public schools (and all employed inside them) are simply becoming the most convenient scapegoat for any who would profit off of educational tax money.
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Hello from Nashville. Dr. Mike Looney is superintendent of suburban Williamson County Schools, and valiantly tried to opt his entire district out of high school tests. He was threatened with the loss of millions of dollars for his district, and yesterday relented. Here is the story from the Tennessean this morning:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2016/05/02/williamson-schools-lifts-suspension-state-high-school-tests/83822404/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=
-Andy Finch Associate Professor Vanderbilt University
Sent from my iPad C: 615-830-8426
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So much for Teacher Appreciation Week. 😦
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The Obama Administration turned Teacher Appreciation Week into Charter Teacher Appreciation Week:
“This week, we honor the educators working in public charter schools across our Nation who, each day, give of themselves to provide children a fair shot at the American dream, and we recommit to the basic promise that all our daughters and sons — regardless of background or circumstance — should be able to make of their lives what they will. ”
It’s appalling how completely in the tank they are. They really require some kind of intervention in DC, some input from someone who isn’t employed inside the ed reform echo chamber.
I guess “testing season” is over and now that they’ve collected the data from public school students we won’t hear a word about public schools until it’s time to test again.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/29/presidential-proclamation-national-charter-schools-week-2016
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“This week, we honor the educators working in public charter schools across our Nation who, each day, give of themselves to provide children a fair shot at
the American dreamhaving their homework paper torn up for failure to answer a question, and we recommit to the basic promise that all our daughters and sons — regardless of background or circumstance — should be able tomake of their lives what they will.stand in line silently with cheeks puffed ”LikeLike
The US Department of Corporate Education must be abolished.
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I’d be more “impressed” with Obama’s statement (well, no, I really wouldn’t be) if he had sent his daughters to a public charter school, rather than the private, very expensive (and very enriched) Sidwell Friends.
But no, Obama and most, if not all, of the better-known charter school advocates, and the billionaires that fund the charter initiatives, send or sent their kids to expensive private schools.
(And, BTW, why doesn’t the Gates Foundation give some of its gazillions to Detroit Public Schools, to pay the teachers, and fix up the crumbling schools?)
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2/3 of Ohio voters want charter schools regulated. Someone alert the Obama Administration before they fund another huge expansion. Maybe we could send a letter, or a diplomatic mission 🙂
Click to access PPP_Release_OH_50216.pdf
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And, according to the Wohlstetter/Fordham Institute paper, Ohioans don’t want charters at all, not local government, not parent groups, not community groups. So, where, within Ohio, is the political climate good for charter schools?
State politicians, who get campaign funds by advocating for them (and, US Senators Brown and Portman).
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Mercedes Schneider has a must-read article, in Huffpo today.
She makes the clearest case of media bias, possible.
“Media Matters: Reporting on Corporate Reform Omitting Walton, Gates and Broad”.
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They should rename it “Hillary Matters (which is why we never mention her donors)”
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I now eagerly await Paul Krugman’s article calling Mercedes Schneider a Bernie Bro.
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Krugman, once thought o have a conscience, not so much, anymore.
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Krugman is just desperate to get a job as the president’s chief economic adviser.It’s the one glaring hole on his resume.
Obama dissed him because of things Krugman wrote about him during his first campaign, so this time Krugman is talking no chances, lining all his ducks up in a nice row.
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This quote from a CNN Article kills me:
“It’s also a challenge for parents such as Kinsey, who works from home but has had to interrupt work three or four times to cajole his sons to do schoolwork. His 11th-grader needs to prepare for the SAT, he said.
‘I gave them a couple choices as long as it was learning,’ said Kinsey, who made reading assignments for his sons. ‘They think this is a vacation. My oldest wants to go to the movies and the mall. It’s been a lot of negotiating, going back and forth and empathizing with them. It’s been tough.'”
It absolutely floors me that our society has turned to complaining about the challenges of parenting before demanding action from our government to provide public education. Reading this, as an educator, all I see is the lack of respect we have for what teachers do. We’re not babysitters.
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Teachers create such hardships for parents through their thoughtless irresponsible, money-grubbing actions.
I say fire them all like Reagan did the air traffic controllers!
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I think this has already started….
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Thanks for sharing Diane . They want teachers to work for nothing. It is a disgrace . The Media lets the teachers look bad . Makes me so angry !!
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and why should they get paid?
They do such a lousy job, anyway. The least they can do is work for free.
In a fair world, they would have to pay the public for letting them teach.
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Cross posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Teacher-Protest-Shuts-Almo-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Detroit-Bankruptcy_Funding_Protest_Public-Education-160503-301.html
with this comment: ” I think that Congress should not be paid until they pass legislation that helps this nation and its people, INSTEAD of defunding everything.”
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Well said. I was raised in Michigan and am APPALLED. Now in Indiana I think the two states are vying to see which can be the worst.
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I hate to say this, but it is a plan, a genuine hidden conspiracy by the NW) (the new World Order) and these billionaires who work behind the scenes.:
Click to access eic-oct_11.pdf
It is sixteen years since I was blindsided a the top o my career, a famous educator in NYC… when this happened to me
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
Now I know the truth, and I am astonished at how fast it is happening… this dismantling of our democracy by defunding our public INSTITUTION of education which IS THE ONLY ROAD to income equality.
i read here and I have followed the activists since 1998, who have disseminated the truth, like Lenny Isenberg at http://www.Perdaily.com.
and Karen Horwitz at
http://endteacherabuse.org/
and Betsy Combier
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
http://nationalpublicvoice.blogspot.com/2012/04/betsy-combier-nyc-department-of.html
They did this to NYC the largest of the 15,880 school systems… and it is no surprise to me, that they imported this successful process, THAT DEPENDS ON temoval of the VOICES of the authentic educators (i. e. TEACHERS) AND THE COOPERATION OF THE MEDIA (which they oligarchs own)
You may have seen the destruction here, when we teachers were removed. Now our citizens have to hunt and to pay for schools that were once EXCEELENT AND FREE…DOWN THE BLOCK!
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Susan, the aim of education is not to produce income “equality” is it? Surely you misspeak.
J. H. Underhill
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Harlan,
I agree with you.
The job of education is to produce equality of opportunity and educated citizens.
The job of government is to produce the social and economic conditions in which no one goes hungry or sleeps on the streets.
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I was very clear…. IN THE MODERN WORLD, the ‘road’ to OPPORTUNITY includes a place to gain the skills needed to do work… to think (analyze and plan) and other skills. For generations American children learned to read, write and think at the neighborhood school. That has changed. Schools are failing our citizens, and it is intentional. I can see a future where only the scions of the well-to-do can attend a school which offers them a chance to acquire the skills needed to do a job, to keep a job.
Schools that educate its citizens is th only path to earning an income, unless daddy or mommy passes on the wealth.
The de-funding of our INSTITUTIONS of education our schools is intentional, so that they can be privatized, and once they are no longer PUBLIC, then the exclusion begins.
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Reading and writing and arithmetic, yes. But thinking? Isn’t that for higher education?
J. H. Underhill
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Harlan, critical thinking skills can and should be taught from elementary school on up. With age-appropriate activities, of course.
K-12 education isn’t just about memorizing and spewing out rote facts (or, at least, it should not be). If you wait until college to begin to teach thinking skills- well, that’s not too late (it’s never too late to learn critical thinking skills), but it’s more difficult.
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Seriously Harlan. I assume that teachers here know Boom’s taxonomy.
Comparison and analysis begins at birth. Kids do it all the time… this block is bigger than that one, and fits in his spot. That book is fun because it shows funny pictures of a monkey and that one has a great story?
Then the teacher asks WHY?
What was special about the story… and kiddie has to reach into PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND COMPARE WHAT HE HEARS TO WHAT HE SEES…and use words to explain the difference.
YUP… reflection is the process… something that people today have so little time to do… just read the message on the screen, and type in aa quick answer in almost-English.
The fly in the ointment is the PRIOR KNOWLEDGE base.
Affluent kids of all colors and flavors have a HUGE base of information and words because their parents read to them and expose them to language and ideas from birth.
MY oldest grandson William, just aced his SAT’s …but then, he was reading at age 2, and by second grade could read college level text ( but would complain to me that “Lemony Snicket” was “too dark,” for his taste.) Ok, he was gifted, but the process LISTENING, SPEAKING, READING WRITING begins at birth, and by the time a kid is in first grade, the cognitive skills that are acquired are considerable.
The next steps hypothesis/predicition and synthesis take place at a very early age.
I watched the kids in the wonderful community nursery school where my own kids went, and where I worked once a week (as all parents did). I saw them approach the white metal table which was usually covered with finger paint… and see the brown stuff that covered it. The teacher had covered it in chocolate pudding.
I saw my own son, put a handful of it up to his nose, and then hypothesis that it smelled like CHOCOLATE pudding. Then he predicted that he could eat it… and he did… followed by the other kids.
I had the luxury of being home with my children until they graduated high school, because I chose to sub and be home when they came home. My husband was not a college grad, but he ran the phone company repair bureau. In our home was the kind of critical analysis that educated parents demonstrate to run things smoothly and to do good work!
it is ALL about DOING WORK, you know… or at least that is what the National Standards research folks said when my practice was a cohort for the Harvard research.
What plans must be made to accomplish a task?
Logic and planning is a first order thinking process… which seniors sometimes begin to lose… as I witnessed in my mother’s decline.
Is this food healthier than that one? Should it be cooked this way or that, and refrigerated? Should I wash the counter after I cut the chicken there?
Does it look like it will be raining today?
How can I finish this project in time to hand it in?
Families build skills, and schools add the final touches.
The common core crap and the testing poop is ruining the early critical thinking skills of our children, and ending real critical analysis of text in all grades.
Our future citizens will have a hard job ‘seeing through’ all the noise on tv, passing for authentic information… but then, look at the mental giants who buy Trumps “Believe me” mendacity!
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This is a lovely exposition of good teaching, if that’s what critical thinking actually means.
I thought it was just educational jargon for the kind of ideological political indoctrination of kids represented by your last paragraph. We will see whether he turns out to be as much of a liar as GWB, BHO, Cruz, H. Clinton, and Bernie. If so, shame on him. He’s likely to win the general, you know, if he can learn any manners. Who will his education secretary be? Not Diane.
J. H. Underhill
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LoL, Harlan. There is so much double-speak and jargon put out there by the reform demons.
Bloom wrote a hierarchy of the processes involved in critical thought, and it was in the required education coursed, for real teachers (when I went to BROOKLYN College).
We learned about LEARNING (or how the human brain actually acquires skills and applies learning) and what real skills learning LOOKED LIKE… so we could recognize when an child of any age was applying critical thinking skills… or not.
As for Trump, all I can say is AGGGGGGGH!
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Since when did it become a radical idea that people should be paid for their work?
😱
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Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
The absolute gall of city officials, who get their paychecks, calling the teachers “selfish” because they want to be paid for their work, is unbelievable.
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Here is the latest from the Free Press.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/03/house-dps-detroit-schools-legislation/83879066/
Some notable points from the bill:
“All the teachers and staff members will have to reapply for their jobs in the new district and their union contracts will not be transferred to the new district. There would be limits on collective bargaining on the school’s calendar and employee work schedule.”
“The district could use non-certified teachers. After three years of teaching, those teachers could waive the requirements for student teaching or certification.”
As someone who lived in New Orleans and currently lives in Detroit, I was truly hoping to never see this similarity. It’s absolutely ludicrous.
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Here’s how NPR finished up a piece on the Detroit ‘sickout” — by giving the last word to the State House speaker
:State House Speaker Kevin Cotter said the teachers union “is once again putting the wants of adults ahead of the needs of children.” The statement, posted Monday, added:
“These egotistical teachers have lashed out at the children who rely on them and accomplished nothing but disrupting their students’ education. 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.”
// end quotes
On many issues, NPR has become almost indistinguishable from Fox News.
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Yes, NPR finally tells the truth. Don’t worry though. It won’t last.
J. H. Underhill
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I hope it doesn’t — NPR, that is.
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