Motown Madness

So, Detroit teachers are still striking, despite a judge's order to return to class. This means the start of a second week Detroit youngsters won't be in school. Detroit's teachers are striking because Detroit Public Schools, which has lost a ton of money in recent years and faces an $100+ million budget shortfall, wants to cut teacher salaries and require them to pay an increased share of their health insurance premiums. The Detroit Federation of Teachers is, instead, asking for a 5% pay increase.

I have to wonder if they're cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Part of Detroit's financial problem is that, like all school districts in the state, it's suffering from state budget cuts due to the state's weak economy. But Detroit's problem is much worse because it's losing a lot of students who choose to enroll in charter schools or suburban districts (Michigan has an interdistrict school choice program), taking their state per pupil funds with them. Last year the district lost 11,000 students! The strike-induced delay in the start of the school year is only accelerating this student loss, as parents--who have no idea when the schools will reopen--scramble for alternative educational options for their children. And the strikers are hardly bolstering public support for or confidence in Detroit public schools. Looking at the press coverage of some of the strikings teachers' behavior and some of the quotes from them, I can't blame parents for deciding they don't want to entrust their kids to these people. I still have acquaintences who live in Michigan (where I grew up), who marvel that, "these people just come across as fools."

I also find it hard to believe the Detroit teachers are gonna get that much sympathy from their local labor bretheren in the UAW, who've been forced to make significant concessions in recent years as Detroit's automakers struggle with global competition, high gas prices and ballooning retirement and health costs. But confronted with similar competition and health pressures, DFT somehow thinks it can strike its way out of facing fiscal realities. In doing so, they cast a negative reflection on the labor movement more generally at a time when the nation needs it more than ever.

I'm not blaming Detroit's teachers for all the problems there. Working conditions and school facilities there are abysmal, kids come into the schools there with all sorts of challenges, communities in which they are located are broken, central DPS and political leadership have failed kids and teachers in many ways, and the state's fiscal situation certainly doesn't help. But DFT's current choices aren't helping and may make the situation worse.

Update: DFT response on the AFT blog. Ms. Price makes a good point about the culpability of Detroit Public Schools' management and leadership. I have friends who taught in Detroit, and some of the things I heard from them would curl your hair. That said, I'm not sure she actually corrects my facts. Public opinion data on these issues is notoriously tricky--people tell pollsters they like teachers like most Americans say they like their Congressman. What matters is that Detroit parents are voting with their feet: 11,500 left DPS last year, and that ain't all people moving away. I'm surprised to hear Ms. Price dismissing the loss of students to charters, considerng how DFT argues that raising Michigan's cap on university-authorized charters would hurt Detroit public schools because more students would be lost to charters. I'm also surprised to hear her arguing that "[The funding Detroit Public Schools] receives now is enough to do a good job of educating our students and getting the classrooms right." I wouldn't want to see that statement trotted out during the next state appropriations debate.