Union: Teacher sick-out tied to Obama’s Detroit trip

Many teachers have conducted protest sick-outs and more are expected Wednesday. Numerous positions are educator coaches who travel to schools to help teachers become better at their jobs.

At least five schools in Detroit will be closed Wednesday due to a high volume of teacher absences.

“We’re projected to continue receiving less state funding per pupil for our next year than we did seven years ago – and back then our state was already near the bottom nationally”, said district spokesperson Will Jones.

They are looking for city and state government officials to step in and take action to improve school conditions. It wasn’t immediately clear when Judge Cynthia Stephens would act. The district has about 46,000 students.

The Detroit News reports that teachers on Wednesday also plan to hold a noon rally and vote on an ongoing program of calling in sick until their demands are met.

Demonstrators hoped to be on hand when Obama’s motorcade arrived at Cobo.

The visit highlights the rebound of auto industry since Obama’s auto industry bailouts during the recession of 2008 and 2009.

Detroit Federation of TeachersFliers are being passed around Detroit that depict damage to classrooms and dead rodents in hallways. “The Detroit schools are in need of a transformational change”, he told lawmakers.

Since the beginning of January, teachers and teacher organizations have been posting photos on social media sites about the appalling conditions they say exist in many Detroit schools.

And last week, Mayor Mike Duggan ordered inspections of all the city’s public schools.

Shanay Watson-Whittaker has seen fallen ceiling tiles, cold classrooms and leaking ceilings.

Sadly, many teachers have quit or organized a sick-out last week for two days urging officials to fix the system and hazardous conditions. Today, it’s the poster child for neglect and indifference to a quality teaching and learning environment for our 500 students. “They were dressed for school when we got the phone call that school was closed”.

The district needs what amounts to a rescue package from Lansing soon. The latest “sickout” comes a day after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s State of the State address, in which he did not directly address teachers’ protests or school conditions.

Watson-Whittaker said her anger is not toward the teachers but with the “emergency manager and how the state has run the education” in the district. More than 20 additional schools closed Wednesday, bringing the total to more than 80 schools.

A spokeswoman for the Detroit Federation of Teachers, a union, acknowledged the protest had been timed to coincide with the President’s visit.