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One of the country’s largest teachers unions is suing Detroit’s public school system, seeking to force its emergency manager out of office, while compelling the city to spend the money needed to fix up badly-decayed school buildings.
Detroit Public Schools (DPS) teaches some 46,000 students from K-12, and has been rocked by a wave of “sickouts” in 2016, where so many teachers call in sick that schools are forced to shut down because of inadequate personnel. Detroit has tried to use a court order to force an end to the sickouts, but has thus far failed, with a judge saying the city has presented no proof the sickouts are centrally planned.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Federation of Teachers in concert with its Detroit affiliate and some local parents, argues that Detroit schools fail to provide a “minimally adequate education” as required by the state constitution and therefore must be totally overhauled under a court order. Specifically, the suit complains about “black mold, bacteria, freezing cold temperatures in classrooms, rodent and insect infestations, exposed wiring, hazards that could lead to incidents of tripping, and falling debris,” among other issues.
The lawsuit contains several specific anecdotes to drive home the point of DPS’s decrepit facilities.
“At Carleton Elementary, Teachers posted pictures showing water damage and pieces of tile coming loose and falling off the ceiling,” the complaint says at one point. “One teacher reported the debris striking a student in the head during testing.”
Similarly, at Thirkell Elementary-Middle School, one preschool classroom allegedly must cope with nearby toilets that constantly overflow, while the entire school has to deal with a cockroach infestation.
The lawsuit certainly appears to be correct on at least one count: Detroit’s schools perform incredibly poorly. The city puts up some of the worst numbers in the country on standardized tests.
Detroit’s schools have been under the direct control of Michigan’s state government since 2009, being supervised by a succession of appointed emergency managers. Currently, the emergency manager is Darnell Early, who previous served as emergency manager of Flint when it made the disastrous switch to using the Flint River as a water source, which resulted in a lead-contaminated water supply.
The lawsuit requests that the Michigan state court institute a variety of remedies, including forcing Early out, restoring local control for DPS, fixing all building code violations, and creation a capital plan for the purpose of creating “schools in which parents would want to send their children.”
In a statement, Early said he’d done his best to help DPS by cutting away at the school district’s structural deficit.
Massive court-ordered interventions into dysfunctional school districts aren’t unheard of. Back in the 1980s, a federal court compelled the state of Missouri to funnel massive levels of resources into Kansas City’s school in an effort to improve their performance and reduce segregation. The effort, which lasted years and cost millions, is generally regarded as a failure.
While they’re eager to point the finger at Michigan’s state government, Lansing could also try to point a finger at teachers. A major reason for the desperate financial situation at DPS is the ballooning cost of unfunded pension liabilities for thousands of retired teachers.
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