Judge could force Detroit teachers back to class

While Lansing wants to dissolve the Detroit Public Schools District, teachers are asking for more autonomy.

“We weren’t alone in this”, Zdrodowski said, while crediting the district’s “fully functional, authorized” police force with identifying the threat and securing the building.

As for the latter, in November 2009, Detroit voters approved $500.5 million in new debt (and related tax hikes on property owners) meant to improve the physical condition of the city’s schools.

The judge scheduled a Monday hearing in the Court of Claims to discuss the request for a preliminary injunction in the case.

The teachers’ sick-out includes a planned march, which will conclude near a venue being visited by President Barack Obama Wednesday.

The claims of poorly maintained schools have triggered media reports that students have to wear jackets in class because the heat doesn’t work, along with allegations of black mold contamination and a general state of disrepair.

Steve Conn, a teacher and activist, said the governor and the school district’s emergency manager should be put on trial, not teachers.

Stephens had previously denied the district’s emergency motion for a temporary restraining order.

The ongoing Flint water crisis, in which residents’ drinking water became contaminated with lead after the city changed its supply source, is inextricably linked to the Detroit Public Schools sickouts. Here is what you need to know about the school conditions that they say make it hard to do their jobs.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers is calling on teachers not to close down any schools. Protesters also called for the resignation of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) on Wednesday.

But the union didn’t organize the sickouts.

Detroit Public Schools made the announcement Wednesday morning, saying more than 85 of its roughly 100 schools were shut.

On the same day that DPS filed its complaint, 90 percent of Detroit schools were closed as a result of teacher sickouts.

Mr. Snyder’s proposed solution would create an alternate school district to actually run the schools, with the old one existing purely to pay off debts.