Detroit Teachers Sue to Remove Leadership
Big, central government didn’t do the students any favors.
After working under Emergency Manager Darnell Earley since 2013, teachers in Detroit Public Schools had enough. Their union, the Detroit Federation of Teachers, filed suit, calling for removing Earley and placing the district that educates 46,000 students once again under local control. The suit also requires the district create an “appropriately funded capital plan,” because, as the teachers union implied, the emergency manager put in place to pull the district out of its $515 million in debt was essentially making it up as he went along. Commentator John C. Goodman painted a dire picture of the school, where buildings rot, cockroaches roam and test scores show students are not getting the education they need. For example, only 27% of Detroit’s fourth graders were proficient in reading in 2012, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam. As we’ve said in the past, if Obama ran a city, it would look like Detroit. Michigan has managed Detroit Public Schools’ finances since 2009. Big, central government came to the public schools’ aid, and didn’t do the students any favors.
- Tags:
- Detroit
- public schools
- education