Detroit Public Schools' sick-outs a symptom of Lansing's ill behavior

Story by Detroit Free Press Editorial Board

We're tired.

Tired of the political machinations some Lansing lawmakers indulge in while Detroit children's futures remain in peril and Detroit Public Schools teachers fear they'll lose their too-meager paychecks.

Tired of the lack of urgency exhibited by nearly everyone involved in the so-called fix for DPS, which we can't help but read as widespread lack of concern for Detroit kids' futures.

And tired — perishingly tired — of the coy, sanctimonious rhetoric displayed this week by Gov. Rick Snyder and state Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter (and avowed by other lawmakers, who just haven't happened upon a convenient microphone so far this week) whose smug pronouncements suggest they'll hang responsibility for the state's DPS inaction on anyone but themselves.

The slate of reforms attached to those millions would split DPS in two, leaving its debt with the old district; the new district would educate children. Whether this plan will work is profoundly uncertain — the business of "reforming" schools involves fundamentally altering not just education but the economic and social landscape — but it's the only one we've got. In theory. The State Senate passed a reasonable package of reforms that corresponds roughly to the plan proposed by Snyder. The House's answer was a union-busting set of proposals not even worthy of consideration. Another House reform package is expected this week, but there's little hope that will be sufficient. Having passed a $48.7-million short-term cash infusion, legislators now dally over a $715-million long-term reform package for Detroit's public schools.

Lest you forget, there are about 46,000 students in DPS schools.

Ninety-four of DPS' 97 schools closed Monday, as teachers protested with another "sick-out." For students who can't go to school, or parents who must scramble to find child care on short notice, sick-outs are a serious challenge. But because teachers are barred by STATE LAW from striking, sick-outs are the only means by which teachers can make good on labor's most potent threat.

Monday's sick-out was prompted by the news that the district can't afford to pay its employees beyond June 30, and some teachers' fears that that means paychecks will stop early this month.

"These egotistical teachers have lashed out at the children who rely on them and accomplished nothing but disrupting their students' education," Cotter wrote in a statement Monday. "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."

Snyder was nearly as odious: "That’s not a constructive act with respect to getting legislation done. That just probably raises more questions and challenges to legislators."

What questions, you ask? Lawmakers are, ostensibly, concerned that the spendthrift district will squander its state-granted $715 million, a notion that fits comfortably into the stereotype of Detroiters' profligacy (and let's get real, by "Detroiters," what's meant is "African Americans") but neatly overlooks the reality of DPS: The district has spent the better part of this century under state control.

It's still under state control, with former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes the latest in a succession of leaders who have failed to fix the district's financial — much less academic — problems. Those problems, you'll note, have grown worse.

Rhodes may succeed where those before him have failed, but only if the Legislature delivers DPS the influx of cash it requires to permanently alter its financial future.

It's an outcome the Legislature has lumbered toward for more than a year. Now, with a proven turnaround leader at the helm of DPS — Rhodes oversaw Detroit's historic municipal bankruptcy — if Lansing falters, who will be to blame? Those pesky teachers. Or so we're told.

Striking teachers, in the alternate universe some of our elected representatives inhabit, imperil the state-appointed Rhodes' ability to not waste the state's money.

It's a shoddy narrative, but one that allows Lansing lawmakers who never intended to help Detroit's children to shirk their duty, and dodge the blame.

The worst part is, it will probably work, leaving Michigan a place that cannot care for its children. It is unfathomable. And if it comes to pass, it will be our state's collective shame.

Read more:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2016/05/02/hundreds-dps-teachers-protest-over-pay-call-audit/83815956/
http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/05/02/dps-legislature-reform/83837414/