New round of teacher absences to close at least five Detroit schools

Detroit teachers and education advocates involved with the mass call-out said the demonstration was meant to shed light on the quality of public education in the city.

Almost all public schools in Detroit will be closed on Wednesday, the city’s school system said, the second time in as many weeks that teachers have called in sick to protest deteriorating conditions. “We need better working environments for our students to be educated in”.

One Detroit teacher, Lakai Wilson, told CNN that teachers’ relationship with DPS officials is like an abusive relationship where they “stay for the kids”. Only six schools remained open.

Temperatures in the teens appeared to have kept most students indoors, and all Wednesday’s protest – and one last week – did for Carnisha Wesley, 23, was to make her late for her own classes.

“Calling it unethical, knowing what he’s done in Flint and the condition of our schools, it was the straw that broke everything”, said Vanessa Dawson, a sixth-grade English teacher at Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy. The schools are a separate unit of government that wasn’t included in the city’s reorganization. “We appreciate the teachers and staff at those schools for being in their classrooms and ensuring that their students are learning today”.

School district spokeswoman Michelle Zdrodowski said that there would no class in 88 schools, which accounts for about 90% of the roughly 100 in the system.

“Each year, each emergency manager, the debt has grown”, said Mitchell, administrator of the Detroit Federation of Teachers.

Obama plans to visit Detroit with a tour of the North American International Auto Show to highlight progress in the city and the auto industry.

Under the proposal, tax revenue would continue to pay off the debt isolated in the DPS system, but the state would gain room to inject additional funding into the new school system. The current manager, Darnell Earley, was appointed a year ago after serving in the same position in the city of Flint, which is now struggling with the problem of lead-contaminated drinking water that began during his tenure there. Last week, teacher absences resulted in three consecutive days of school closures.

“(The) time to act is now”, he told lawmakers.

Snyder says the District is being financially suffocated by its own debt burden, which is estimated to eclipse $550 million by this summer according to the governor.

The teachers say they are protesting classroom overcrowding, mold in classrooms, collapsing ceilings and dilapidated buildings, none of which was addressed in Snyder’s speech Tuesday night, though the governor said that “Detroit schools are in need of a transformational change”.