DETROIT TEACHERS UNION CALLS FOR SICK-OUT MONDAY. MORE POWER TO THEM!

The headlines are blaring in the Detroit Free Press today that the Detroit teachers union is calling for a district wide sick-out for tomorrow, Monday, May 2. It sounds like a great idea to me. It is likely that 26,000 DPS teachers will not report to work tomorrow and I don't blame them . This is a good and extremely necessary call by the teacher union. I say more power to the union and to DPS teachers.

It was announced this morning that the Detroit Public Schools will essentially shut down after June 30, and this includes summer school. But there is more. Teachers will not be paid after June 30th. As reported in today's Detroit Free Press, teachers want to know why the district does not have the money to pay teachers who deferred from their pay and are on the 26-week pay cycle. It is appalling that they won't be paid.

Detroit Public Schools face a $515 million debt. In March governor Snyder signed off on a bill giving DPS $48 million dollars. This was supposed to include payments due to teachers working on the 26-week cycle. Apparently this is not the case and teachers and the union are understandably outraged.

Here is what continually gets under my skin. This nation of ours has spent trillions of dollars in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, yet we can't pay our teachers who are busting their humps for the good of the children each and every day. What a disgrace. More power to the teachers!

Jeff Brown
Editor in Chief
Purple Walrus Press