Teachers Offer to Work for Free and Get Fired Anyway

The small Buena Vista, Michigan school district (500 students) closed its doors this week—more than a month early—because it is broke, despite the fact that its teachers agreed to work for free. If the district does not find the money to reopen, seniors may be prevented from graduating.

The cause of the district’s financial woes, according to the Huffington Post, was that it spent money provided by the state for running the Wolverine Secure Treatment Center, an organization with which the district no longer works. Consequently, the state has frozen district funds until the district can repay $402,000. The district also lost $3 million in state funding due to declining enrollment, Yahoo News reported. However, Buena Vista, like many other districts throughout the U.S., has suffered most significantly from across the board cuts in education spending by state governments.

The state of Michigan could have bailed out the struggling district, thus saving parents the hassle and expense of finding childcare for a month and the government the expense of paying unemployment insurance to dozens of teachers, but that apparently would have sent the wrong message The Michigan Department of Education argued that the district created the problem through incompetence and must now pay the penalty (even if that means that children, parents and employees are the ones who actually pay).

The local school board could also have found a way to keep its schools open, but unanimously approved the closure. The board approved a “deficit reduction” plan they hope will appease the state and result in the release of funds for next school year. It also proposed a summer boot camp emphasizing standardized testing skills (to be paid for with federal funds) in lieu of normal instruction, Michigan Radio reported on Wednesday.

In late breaking news, state Superintendent Mike Flanagan approved the Buena Vista school board deficit reduction plan, allowing the district to start up again and finish the school year without having to resort to their boot camp plan, according to the Holland Sentinel. The district will also recall 27 laid-off teachers.

What remains unclear (probably deliberately so) are the details of the deficit reduction plan. Will pay and/or benefits be slashed for the 2013-2014 school year? Will course offerings be cut and the teaching and support staffs downsized? Will furlough days be imposed? Buena Vista may be out of the frying pan for the current school year, but back they students and teachers will likely be back into the fire next year.

Detroit Wild Cat Strike Shuts Down 2 School Districts

They say Michigan’s new Right to Work (RTW) law is now a done deal. That didn’t stop thousands of teachers and other union members from taking the day off to protest at the state capital this week. In Detroit, so many teachers called in sick that two school districts, (Taylor Public Schools and Warren Consolidated Schools), were closed for the day, according to Detroit News. Detroit Public Schools (DPS) remained open, though Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) President Keith Johnson did urge members to go to Lansing.

The state’s new RTW bills would make it illegal to require employees to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. This would significantly reduce unions’ ability to raise funds to support their members, while allowing freeloaders to reap the benefits of union-negotiated contracts without providing any material support for this service. RTW states have lower wages and lower union membership than other states.

Pundits and many union activists are accepting the new RTW laws as a fait accompli. However, the fact that two unions were able to easily shut down their districts with wild cat sick outs demonstrates the power teachers and other workers actually have to force a reversal of the laws. While it may be illegal for teachers to strike in this situation, the law cannot stop teachers from exercising their rights to take days off for medical or personal necessities. Such actions can be organized informally and done on a rotating basis (i.e., rolling sick outs) to minimize the loss of individual sick days, while maximizing the impact.

On the other hand, workers need to get over their fear of breaking the law. Civil disobedience has a long and important history in this country, especially in the labor movement. Strikes and unions have both been illegal in the past, but workers still formed unions and continued to engage in job actions, often getting arrested and beaten in the process, and occasionally getting killed or deported. Breaking unjust laws (e.g., any restriction on the right to strike) in the name of improving personal and collective liberties, as well as working and living conditions, is both necessary and just.

Cut Class, Lose Welfare—MI’s Latest Attempt to Bail Itself Out on the Backs of the Poor

Get to Class, Punk (Image from Flickr, by DonkeyHotey)

A new Michigan law (effective October 1) requires all children to be in school full time or the entire family will become ineligible to receive welfare benefits, the Detroit News reports. Furthermore, all new cash-assistance applicants will now be required to prove school enrollment for their children and good attendance in order to receive aid, while families that have lost benefits due to truancy will have to prove their child has attended school for 21 consecutive days before they can regain eligibility.

Of course it is difficult to succeed in school if you do not go to class and truancy certainly hurts schools’ finances since revenues are based on average daily attendance. But it is cruel and stupid to strip welfare benefits from an entire family, potentially harming the health, safety and educational outcomes of younger siblings, because of the behavior of one child, particularly when truancies are often unavoidable products of poverty.

Many lower income children miss class for untreated medical conditions. Without health insurance or resources for preventable care, minor treatable conditions can worsen to the point that students are in too much pain to attend class. They may even require hospitalization. Lower income children also have higher rates of asthma, diabetes, anemia and other chronic conditions that can lead to long-term absences or hospitalization, particularly when treatment is out of reach. Even “excusable” medical absences can become “cuts” if they last longer than a few days and a doctor’s note cannot be obtained (which is not uncommon when the student cannot afford to see a doctor in the first place).

Lower income kids also sometimes stay home from school to care for younger siblings or older relatives so their parents can go to work. While this is unfortunate for the children who are missing out on school and being forced to grow up more quickly than their peers, it is also a product of poverty. Affluent families are more likely to be able to afford day care, home care, private preschool and other resources for family members in need of supervision or care.

Some students cut class to avoid bullies or rival gangs. This is rarely seen as an “excusable” absence by schools. However, from the perspective of the child it may be the only reasonable choice when the alternative of coming to school includes the risk of injury or even death. Students also report cutting class because they live far away from school and cannot secure consistent transportation to school. Hunger, depression and other mental health issues can also keep some kids from attending school regularly.

In none of these examples is the threat of losing welfare benefits likely to change the behavior.

Of course there are plenty of kids who are truant purely to avoid the stress of classwork or to party with their friends. There are also plenty of kids who are truant because their parents keep them away from school for family vacations or social events. It is understandable and perhaps even justifiable to hold these parents accountable for their children’s unexcused absences, but the state of Michigan is unlikely to invest in sufficient social workers to visit every home of every truant student to assess the actual causes and legitimacy of the truancies.

More importantly, if the issue truly is children’s wellbeing, a one-size fits all punitive approach cannot succeed and will most likely have the opposite effect. Since the majority of chronic truancies are related to poverty, stripping poor families of their meager welfare benefits will only worsen their poverty, while completely ignoring root causes of truancy like inadequate transportation, poor access to health care, gang violence, lack of child care for siblings, hunger and depression.

Michigan to Ease Charter Restrictions, Professor Says They Are “Corporate” Schools

Michigan is preparing to ease rules on charter schools even further. Supporters have argued that charter schools have been very successful in Michigan. Many claim they are better than traditional public schools and increasing them would improve educational outcomes for the state.

In reality, charter schools perform the same or worse than traditional public schools. However, they have been very successful is in making profits, so successful that a Western Michigan professor says they should more accurately be called “corporate” or “franchise” schools. According to the Grand Rapids Press, Western Michigan professor Gary Miron made this statement during testimony before a state Senate Committee that was weighing whether to make it easier for charter schools to open in Michigan. (Miron, it should be noted, is an advocate of charter schools, at least conceptually).

Of course investors and other education profiteers are the ones crying the loudest for an easing of restrictions on charters. What do they care about quality of effectiveness? A profit is a profit.

Michigan’s plan for increasing the number of charters includes lifting the cap on the number of charter schools that colleges and universities can run, increasing the number of cyber charters, and making it easier for parents to petition districts to convert their traditional schools into charters.

Michigan Attempts to Crush Teachers Unions

A House committee of the Republican Michigan Legislature approved legislation this week banning school districts from deducting union dues from teachers’ pay, according to the Detroit News. If the legislation passes, it will serious hamper union activities by making it much more difficult for the unions to collect dues and amass war chests for organizing, lobbying and attempting to purchase politicians.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joe Haveman, said "I don't believe the schools should be in the business of being the bill collectors for the unions." However, because of the automated payroll systems, it costs the districts virtually nothing to include union dues in the billing. Even Haveman himself admitted that the savings would be nominal.

The real motivation behind the legislation is clearly to weaken the unions. David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan was quoted by the Detroit News saying "The goal is to totally undercut the voice of teachers by totally undercutting their unions."

As if any more proof was needed, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, suggested that a "right to teach" bill would be a good idea, undermining the ability of unions to create closed shops in which all employees must become members. While it is true that Michigan and most other states do not have truly closed shops for teachers and teachers can opt out of the union, they still often get some money deducted from their paychecks for union representation and generally get the same contracts as the fully paying members. If a “right to teach” bill were successful, one likely implication would be that all teachers would have to negotiate individual contracts with their districts, without the power and benefits of collective bargaining, most likely resulting in significantly lower wages and benefits.

It should be pointed out that the automatic dues check off, while making it easier for unions to finance themselves, is certainly not necessary for a union to be effective. In fact, it may actually contribute to the bureaucratization, laziness and wimpiness of union officials. Back in the day, there was no automatic dues check off and union organizers had to collect dues from each member in person, giving them the chance to do more real organizing, listening to members’ grievances and suggestions. It forced them to be more accountable to members because they failed to make members happy, they simply refused to pay their dues.

Michelle Rhee: Dragon Capitalist

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Michelle Rhee’s Students First project collaborated with Michigan Republicans to draft four anti-teacher education bills, including the implementation of a merit pay scheme and the gutting of teacher’s collective bargaining rights. The bills make it easier to fire teachers, dramatically reducing their ability to advocate for their students or themselves. The bills also make it easier to slash their pensions, benefits and pay and easier to bust their unions. This, in turn, makes it easier to fund subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy and while contributing to increased profits by stimulating a general downward spiral in wages.

The following is from the Rhee First website:

“Education blogger At the Chalk Face has obtained an internal briefing document from Michelle Rhee’s Students First, and makes clear just how extensively Students First collaborated with Michigan Republicans on four education bills targeting teachers, including one limiting collective bargaining. The 30-page PDF is available here.”

Rick Snyder Likes It Longer, Harder, Faster and Cut

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder confirmed Tuesday that he wants to impose a merit pay system for teachers. The Detroit News suggested that his goal was to reward excellent teachers to keep them in the classroom, rather than seeing them move into higher-paid jobs in school administration. Since few teachers successfully move into administration, Snyder either has a very delusional sense of this “problem” or he believes there are very few “excellent” teachers who deserve merit raises.

Considering that he plans on slashing K-12 funding by $470 per student, there will be a lot less money available to pay teachers. Therefore, when he talks about “merit pay,” what he is really talking about is pay cuts for the majority of teachers, and salary stability for “excellent” teachers. However, excellent teachers will have to become much more excellent to keep their meager wages. The budget cuts will make it much more difficult for all teachers to do a good job, and will result in many teachers spending even more than they already do out of pocket to purchase supplies and putting in even longer hours to help their struggling students.

Snyder implied as much, claiming that despite the “huge” amount of resources going into education, it is not achieving the needed results. Therefore, he wants teachers to work longer, harder and faster. He hinted at a longer school year and cuts to summer vacation. He also suggested more online learning, which will result in cuts to teaching jobs.

Apparently, Snyder also has a car fetish, saying he wants more “dashboards” to measure school performance, or perhaps this is just how Michigan politicians talk. Showing his hip safe sex side, he implied that charter schools be capped (ostensibly to keep them from spreading STDs to traditional public schools), but in sign of mercy he suggested that the cap be raised so that they can swell and engorge without turning blue.

Financial Martial Law in Wisconsin, Too?

According to Forbes magazine, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his cronies are drafting legislation that would allow him to appoint emergency managers who could cancel union contracts, fire elected officials and school board members, and take control of entire cities and towns. Rick Unger, who wrote the piece, said that the plan is being written by the largest law firm in the state, Foley & Lardner, and is scheduled to be introduced to the legislature next month.

Walker went on the radio yesterday to deny the report, asserting that it was “absolutely bogus.” He denied that he or anyone in his office ever did or said or planned anything like this, which leaves open the possibility that Foley & Lardner are indeed working on such a plan, and that Walker is simply making a stab at plausible deniability. Unger’s source, a Wisconsin political organizer named Nate Timm, refused to name his source for this information, but had confirmed that he received his information from a “highly placed GOP source” who was in a position to know the governor’s plans.

If true, Wisconsin’s plan would be very similar to the financial martial law plan enacted in Michigan earlier this year, where Governor Snyder has already appointed an Emergency Financial Manager, Joseph Harris, to take over the town of Benton Harbor. One of Harris’ first acts as Manager was to issue an order stripping away all powers from the city’s elected officials. Erik Kain, another Forbes writer, said that the Michigan and Wisconsin plans followed a pattern of similar legislation being pushed through in other Tea-Party controlled states enacting strikingly similar legislation all at the same time across the country.