{For news updates on the Detroit teachers’ strike see The Workplace Blog
From the “Push Back the MEAP, Bring Forward Real Learning” listserv:
Why Are The Teachers Striking? A Letter to Our Parents
Don’t think for a moment that it doesn’t hurt us when we see your children clean and pressed and ready for the first day of school, only to find none of us inside the school building. We want to be in our classrooms ready to begin the new year. But this year, we cannot. We want you to know this strike is about more than raises in teacher salaries and benefits (although that is part of it). It is about standing up for your children’s rights to a free and appropriate education. It is about drawing a line in the sand and telling the district that we won’t stand for substandard school conditions that don’t afford our urban children the same opportunities as children who attend public school in other school districts.
We are standing behind this line because we believe in your children, and we are committed to providing a quality education with the tools they need to grow into successful adults. To do our jobs well, we need certain things that the district is not providing. The district is making poor choices about how to spend the $7,600 per child that the State gives each year. The district has been making poor choices for a long time, and that is why we are in the situation we are in The district should change the way they manage the money, rethink their spending priorities and not ask the teachers or students to make any more sacrifices to cover their negligent spending.
The teachers’ issues are:
- Money being spent on high-priced leased office buildings with high-priced, fancy furniture and computers for administrators.
- Spending thousands per student on five standardized tests. If one could be eliminated, much money and time could be spent more wisely to help our neighborhood school have the basics.
- A drinking fountain that works on each floor, repaired ceilings, clean and painted walls, lights that work in each classroom and hallways, clean bathrooms with doors, toilets and sinks working. Floors that are not buckled from water, a school library for the students and staff, classrooms wired for the internet, a computer that works in each classroom, a computer lab, a safe and clean playground, safe sidewalks with curbs—not cracks and holes, and adequate cleaning staff to meet the demands of the overcrowded classrooms.
- Forty students in a classroom is unacceptable. Uncertified substitutes being placed in classrooms to fill teacher vacancies is inexcusable. Our classroom aides and noon hour aides are being cut. They are greatly needed to support the staff and students.
We are standing for your children and hope that you will stand with us too. Other cities are looking at how this will turn out, and we are standing for those children and those teachers, too. We think there is enough money to teach our children well, if it is spent wisely in the school and not in the administration building. When we say no contract; no work we are asking for conditions that are equitable for children and teachers alike. If you have ANY QUESTIONS, please don’t hesitate to ask. We want you to understand the reasons we are standing outside the school, away from our classrooms because of the problems we are faced with and we hope you will stand with us for the children because NO CHILD SHOULD BE LEFT BEHIND.
Respectfully yours,
The teachers at Neinas Elementary School, September 5, 2006
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