Contents of this issue:
Tense Detroit school labor negotiations continue
Court rules against union in Brother Rice case
K-16 Coalition begins circulating petition for inflationary increases
Homeschooling a growing trend; critics want greater oversight
Colleges suggest harder classes better than high grades
Study concludes teachers who leave cost state millions
TENSE DETROIT SCHOOL LABOR NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE
Detroit — The Detroit News reported today that teachers and
administrators of Detroit Public Schools made progress in contract
negotiations with its 10,000 school employees. When negotiations began,
an 11.4 percent reduction in pay was proposed. The latest terms The
News reported were for a 2.5 percent pay reduction and having teachers
pay 20 percent of their health care premiums, along with some benefits
reductions. According to data cited by The News from the Michigan
Center for Educational Performance and Information, the average salary
for a Detroit teacher is $57,702, placing Detroit 61st out of over 500
districts.
To balance the district's budget, which already contains a plan
required by the state to reduce the schools' $200 million deficit,
administrators have said they need $63 million in concessions. Though
he would not mention details, William Coleman, the district's chief
executive, told The News that he thinks the current offer is "something
(the Detroit Federation of Teachers) can live with, but they ultimately
have (to) make that decision."
DFT President Janna Garrison said the union has found ways to save $47
million that do not involve pay reductions. Citing "significant
progress ... between the parties," Garrison said the union has moved a
vote on whether employees would return to work from today to Wednesday.
The News reported that all parties believe that a strike would
"cripple" Detroit schools. Under Michigan law, teacher strikes are
illegal. If Detroit teachers were to strike, The News noted, they risk
penalties that include being fired or being fined one day's pay for
each day on strike.
The News also reported the district estimates that its projected loss
of 10,000 students this year could double in the event of a lengthy
strike. The Detroit Free Press also editorialized today, "Like the
airline passengers breezing past (Northwest Airlines) picketers at
(Detroit) Metro Airport, some will not look twice before moving on with
their lives and doing what they think is best for their children."
As of Tuesday at noon, a vote on whether to strike had been delayed,
with a vote on a new contract pending.
SOURCES:
The Detroit News, "Detroit teacher pay talks progress," Aug. 23, 2005
http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0508/23/B01-289782.htm
Detroit Free Press, "Reprieve," Aug. 23, 2005
http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/eschools23e_20050823.htm
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Detroit Teachers Illegally Strike: Anti-Strike Law Proves Weak," Fall 1999
http://www.educationreport.org/2492
COURT RULES AGAINST UNION IN BROTHER RICE CASE
Detroit — The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled this week that teachers
at Brother Rice High School cannot be represented by the Michigan
Education Association, overturning the Michigan Employment Relations
Commission's earlier decision to allow the parochial school's teachers
to vote on whether they should unionize.
In May 2004, the MERC determined that Brother Rice teachers could vote
on whether they wanted to unionize under the MEA, but Brother Rice
administrators sued, saying that organizing parochial school teachers
could violate the right to religious freedom, The Detroit News
reported.
Paul Ryder, a Brother Rice graduate and founder of the nonprofit
Friends of Brother Rice, told The News, "I don't think there's any room
in Catholic education for unions, unless the people who are part of the
community — the alumni, the parents, the (administration) — wanted the
union to come in."
David Crim of the MEA said that the union was disappointed by the
court's decision, and that teachers should have "the right to decide
for themselves if they want union representation," according to The
News.
The News reported that the Appeals Court based its decision on a 1979
U.S. Supreme Court ruling that did not allow employees at Chicago
Catholic schools to organize under federal labor relations laws. But
The News reported that union officials said teachers at parochial
schools in other states have been allowed to unionize. Mackinac Center
Senior Legal Analyst Patrick J. Wright called the decision "an
important victory for Catholic schools and their unique role in
Michigan's education community."
SOURCES:
The Detroit News, "Court rejects teachers union," Aug. 18, 2005,
http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0508/19/B01-284937.htm
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "A Michigan Catholic school remains
union-free," Aug. 22, 2005
http://www.mackinac.org/7261
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Brother Rice case in court," Spring 2005
http://www.educationreport.org/7026
Michigan Education Report, "Commission rules Catholic school must hold
union vote," Summer 2004
http://www.educationreport.org/6738
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Will Michigan have its first
unionized parochial school?", Sept. 2, 2003
http://www.mackinac.org/5680
K-16 COALITION BEGINS CIRCULATING PETITION FOR FUNDING INCREASES
Lansing, Mich. — The K-16 Coalition for Michigan's Future, a group
composed of various public school, community college and university
groups, embarked Thursday on a campaign to collect 255,000 signatures
for a new petition, according to the Lansing State Journal.
Their petition demands that public schools, colleges and universities
receive a guaranteed inflationary increase in their state funding each
year, that retirement costs exceeding 14.87 percent of the school
district or university payroll would be paid by the state and that a
funding gap between districts be reduced by 2012, the Journal reported.
Tom White, chairman of K-16 Coalition, told Gongwer News Service that a
budget for the campaign is not yet final, but that it would take an
estimated $1 million to finance a statewide signature-gathering effort.
If the coalition collects enough signatures, the proposal outlined in
the petition could either be approved by the state Legislature, or face
voters as a ballot question in November 2006. However, State House
Speaker Craig DeRoche, when asked whether he would bring up the
proposal for a vote, told MIRS News on Monday, "At this point I guess
the answer would be no. But I do have an open mind."
White told The Detroit News, "Our preference would be to settle this
legislatively, if we can. But ultimately we have to be willing to take
this to the people."
According to The News, most Republicans in the Legislature oppose the
measure, in part because they believe it might force state dollars away
from other important services. Similarly, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has
criticized the proposal, The News said, because it does not identify a
funding source.
SOURCES:
Lansing State Journal, "Educators start drive to secure increases in
state school funds," Aug. 19, 2005
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050819/NEWS05/508190327/1001/RSS
The Detroit News, "Group ups school funds fight," Aug. 19, 2005
http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0508/19/B01-286007.htm
Gongwer News Service, "Coalition prepares school funding petitions,"
Aug. 15, 2005 (Subscription required)
http://www.gongwer.com/programming/news_articledisplay.cfm? article_ID=441570104&newsedition_id=4415701&locid=1&link=news_articledisplay.cfm? article_ID=441570104%26newsedition_id=4415701%26locid=1
MIRS Capitol Capsule, "A Conversation with Speaker DeRoche," Aug. 22,
2005 (Subscription required)
http://www.mirsnews.com/capsule.php?gid=312#4869
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Jen and the art of education," Summer 2005
http://www.educationreport.org/7250
Michigan Education Report, "K-12 spending guarantee ignores economics,"
Summer 2005
http://www.educationreport.org/7249
HOMESCHOOLING A GROWING TREND; CRITICS WANT GREATER OVERSIGHT
Detroit — A Detroit News article last week highlighted homeschooling in
Michigan as "a growing trend of parents pulling their kids out of the
classroom and teaching them at home," and cited critics' concerns that
the state's homeschool oversight laws are too lax.
Michigan requires only voluntary registration with the state, so many
homeschooling parents simply choose to educate their children beyond
the state's purview. The News reported that of an estimated 126,000
Michigan homeschool students, 1,566 students and 943 households are
registered.
Michigan State University Education Policy Center Co-Director David
Plank told The News, "I believe that 95 percent of homeschoolers are
probably better off at home than in a school, but the state's concern
should be about the other 5 percent. We have no information about what
kind of education they are receiving from their parents. Not finding
out is a failing on the part of the state of Michigan."
ACT score comparisons show that Michigan children who are homeschooled
earned an average of 23.1 on the test in 2004, while other Michigan
students averaged 21.4, The News reported.
The article also reported an emerging change in parents' motives for
homeschooling their children. Whereas most of the parents who began
the homeschool trend in the 1980s did so for religious reasons, today
many are dissatisfied with public schools on other grounds. One
homeschooling parent, Katherine Jackson of Detroit, told The News,
"It's not the education; it's the social issues in the schools ...
There's no cure in sight." The News noted a Home School Legal Defense
Association nationwide survey that found that about 31 percent of
homeschool parents are motivated to homeschool because of the negative
social environment in schools.
Based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics, The
News reported that about 2 percent of American school-aged children are
homeschooled.
SOURCE:
The Detroit News, "Kids learn at home, but no one's watching,"
Aug. 14, 2005
http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0508/14/A01-280168.htm
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "'A' student succeeds in homeschool after
negative social experiences at Middle School," Spring 1999
http://www.educationreport.org/1671
Michigan Education Report, "Home school heroes," Winter 1999
http://www.educationreport.org/1592
COLLEGES SUGGEST HARDER CLASSES BETTER THAN HIGH GRADES
Detroit — A Detroit News article last week pointed to the likelihood
that taking harder classes in high school better prepares students for
college, even if the preparation comes at the expense of earning
exceptional grades.
According to The News, it is often a temptation for Michigan high
school students, especially seniors, to "go for the fluff courses and
slide into college without much unpleasant exertion." However, some
students are proving that college preparation through rigorous
coursework may be more beneficial than breezing through easier classes.
College testing services such as ACT also recommend such a strategy.
St. Clair Shores graduate Christina Safar told The News, "By senior
year, all my friends were taking blow-off classes ... but I was the
opposite. When I'd exhausted my high school's hardest courses, I took
classes at Macomb Community College." Safar is now excelling at Wayne
State's Honors College in the pharmacy program.
According to Kalamazoo College Director of Admissions John Carroll,
parents are often concerned that lower grades resulting from more
difficult coursework may hinder their child's chance of admission to
premiere institutions. But Carroll told The News, "We recognize when a
kid takes the ambitious courses. We look at the rigor of the course
work."
SOURCE:
The Detroit News, "Hard classes help the college-bound," Aug. 16, 2005
http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0508/19/E05-281504.htm
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Momentum builds for tougher curriculum,"
Summer 2005
http://www.educationreport.org/7237
Michigan Education Digest, "Educators react to governor's proposed
curriculum changes," Feb. 15, 2005
http://www.educationreport.org/6982
STUDY CONCLUDES TEACHERS WHO LEAVE COST STATE MILLIONS
Detroit — A study released last Monday by the Washington, D.C.-based
Alliance for Excellent Education proposes that Michigan schools could
spend more than $179 million to replace teachers who leave the
profession, transfer or retire, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The study said that schools must do a better job providing mentoring
programs and training for new teachers because, according to Alliance
President Bob Wise, "For every $1 you invest in a new teacher ... you get
back at least $1.37." Wise, who is also the former governor of West
Virginia, reportedly told the Free Press, "Right now we're losing
millions of dollars nationally and in Michigan."
Using U.S. Department of Education and Department of Labor statistics,
the group determined that 4,558 Michigan teachers will have left
teaching for various reasons by the time school starts this year.
Michigan Education Association Communications Director Margaret Trimer-Hartley says the union believes that teacher turnover is disruptive to
the classroom, and that, "We need to figure out how to create stability
in the school setting to carry out the curriculum and provide the
continuity kids need."
The $179 million figure is calculated from estimates of benefit and
payroll expenses for departing teachers, and recruiting costs for
incoming teachers, the Free Press reported.
SOURCE:
Detroit Free Press, "Teachers who leave cost state millions,"
Aug. 16, 2005
http://www.freep.com/news/education/teacher16e_20050816.htm
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Teacher shortage forces states to relax
rules for educators," Fall 2000
http://www.educationreport.org/3112
MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education
Report (
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a quarterly newspaper
with a circulation of 140,000 published by the Mackinac Center
for Public Policy (
http://www.mackinac.org),
a private,
nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute.
Contact Managing Editor Ryan Olson at
med@educationreport.org.
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