But What About The Children....Especially In Detroit Schools. Go Unions Go!

[twyacht]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/detroit-may-close-half-of-its-schools-to-pay-for-union-benefits/

Detroit May Close Half of Its Schools to Pay for Union Benefits

A report from the Detroit News Monday suggested that without government aid, the city of Detroit will be forced to close down nearly half of the city’s public schools in the next two years. Additionally, the paper warns that average high school class sizes will swell to 62 students by the following year.

These startling statistics were laid out in a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state of Michigan by the city’s Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb. Bobb’s role is working to slash the $327 million deficit the Detroit school district has accrued over the years.

According to the Detroit News, Detroit Public Schools considered filing for bankruptcy in 2009 but declined. In the past year alone, debt in the district has increased by more than $100 million, brought on by a “mix of revenue declines in property taxes, reduced state aid, declining enrollment and an unplanned staffing surge this past fall.”

While Bobb and DPS administrators have a lot to account for, noticeably absent from the discussion is the role of the teachers unions.

As students suffer amidst increasing classroom sizes and declining school choices, the district’s teachers stand to earn higher salaries. The city’s contract with the Detroit Federation of Teachers requires payments for teachers whose class sizes exceed specified maximums. So while Bobb demands increased class sizes to save the district money, the district is simultaneously estimating the move will create $10 million in additional costs to pay teachers’ oversize class pay over the next four years alone.

A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal also notes the city’s decaying public school system:

    “Additional savings of approximately $12.4 million can be achieved from school closures if the District simply abandons the closed buildings,” the proposal explains, purging costs like boarding up buildings, storage and security patrols.

    Steven Wasko, a spokesman for Mr. Bobb, said that urban property sales have been difficult, in part because until recently the state board of education banned transactions with “competing educational institutions” like charter schools. Once buildings are deserted, even if the doors and windows are welded shut with protective metal covers, scavengers break in and dismantle them for copper wire, pipes and so on.

    Under the emergency plan, consolidated high-school class sizes would increase to 62 by 2014, “consistent with what students would expect in large university settings.” Yet under the terms of the Detroit Federation of Teachers contract, the district must pay bonuses for class enrollment over 35, thus imposing some $11.1 million in new costs through 2014.

    Note that this dispensation carries about the same price tag as the school abandonment windfall: In other words, Detroit may end up destroying serviceable capital assets so it can pay its public workers more over the short term.


****

Wasn't there a plan to bulldoze most of Detroit's abandoned run down sections and return them to "nature"?
Just close most of the schools, to cover the cost of overpaid union teachers, that get a bonus if their class size is over a given amount.

I'm sure the children will benefit from this strategic plan, with the education of kids as a priority.

OBTW, no Republican has ever been mayor, or held a majority in Detroit's history. Which by all Liberal standards, should be a communal nirvana by now...

How's that Hope & Change working for you Detroit?

[tombogan03884]

A report from the Detroit News Monday suggested that without government aid, the city of Detroit will be forced to close down nearly half of the city’s public schools in the next two years. Additionally, the paper warns that average high school class sizes will swell to 62 students by the following year.

Which, based on current Detriot statistics mans that with in the next 3 years we will need prison cells for 45 of them.

[alfsauve]

 “consistent with what students would expect in large university settings.”

So many things wrong with that statement.  Both from what it says about our universities and about the applicability of large class sizes to teenage students.

[jaybet]

Our Govorner, Chris Christie is catching flack from the school administrators association because he wants to limit administrator salaries to $180,000. They're complaining.

Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb...Bob Bobb? I don't care who you are that's funny, right there!

[Solus]

and an unplanned staffing surge this past fall


Now, I'd like to see the explanation for that one?

"I don't know how it happened.  At the start of the school year, we had 2,722 people on the payroll.  Then, all of a sudden, there were 3,112 of them. "

[Sponsor]

[fightingquaker13]

Can we please not blame the teachers here? Seriously. Moving from 35 students to close to seventy doubles the workload. Shouldn't there be more pay for more work? And more than that, its an absurd number. As a college prof who has taught 70 plus person classes I will tell you straight up that you're not getting the same level of education you are in a class with half that number. Its just not possible. There will be multiple choice tests rather than essays so writing and reasoning skills are nglected, less discussion, more lecture and face time is limited. This is with 19 year olds who are reasonably academically competant and  WANT to be there. Now substitute 15 year olds who may or may not know how to read, who have one parent if that, may have a criminal record, and want to be anywhere but there. Asking for more money to deal with that nightmare is unreasonable how?

As far as the larger problem, you can't blame the grunts for having crappy generals. The parents don't stand up. Community "leaders" make excuses, and politicians blame the $35 k a year teachers. The adminstrators are making $180k per year, you can't discipline the little darlings lest you be sued, and its racist not to graduate them. Then, you have bone headed GOP "fixes" like "No Child Left Behind" that force you to teach to a standardized test that expects the same results from white suburban kids as it does from kids who barely speak English and whose parents are illiterate in two languages, or who couldn't pick their sperm donor out of a lineup. The slow kids still won't get it, the smart kids get bored and tune out, and the average kids are held back by the idiots. Its total BS.
FQ13

[JC5123]

I don't have any problem with paying teachers more. IF THEY GET RESULTS.
What I have a problem with is teachers unions and tenure. These are the same reasons that GM is now owned by you and me. The unions keep demanding more for less, and getting it. Now the employer can't pay it, so it's the consumer that suffers. And it this case it means very simply that we are going to have yet ANOTHER generation that is dumber than the last.

This is what scares me, it's not the people running the country now that will destroy us, it's the ones that will be running it in another 20 years.

Yes we have to make the president a rubber stamp because he's illiterate! But he's a black man from Detroit, and he's gonna put gas in my car and pay my mortgage!

[Solus]

I don't have any problem with paying teachers more. IF THEY GET RESULTS.
What I have a problem with is teachers unions and tenure. These are the same reasons that GM is now owned by you and me. The unions keep demanding more for less, and getting it. Now the employer can't pay it, so it's the consumer that suffers. And it this case it means very simply that we are going to have yet ANOTHER generation that is dumber than the last.

This is what scares me, it's not the people running the country now that will destroy us, it's the ones that will be running it in another 20 years.

Yes we have to make the president a rubber stamp because he's illiterate! But he's a black man from Detroit, and he's gonna put gas in my car and pay my mortgage!

The folks running the country now are doing a great job at destroying it.  Credit where credit is due.

[jaybet]

I have no serious problems with teachers except for a) bad teachers, and b) teachers who always whine about their salary and bennies no matter what. What I personally don't like is school administration. The administrators association I mentioned actually suggested that before Christie limit salaries, he should discuss with them ways of cutting from school budgets. I can tell you how that will happen...cut teachers.

These clowns are pulling down big, big money and we've got first hand horror stories of adminstrators who are on their third and fourth position, screwing things up. These guys take a contract, screw up so much that the district BUYS them out of their contract, then they get another job in another district and do the same thing! You NEVER see the administration suggest that maybe they don't need so much office help, or we could do away with a few assistant superintendants or assistant principles. It's always, "Cut the music program, cut the art program, triple up the kindergarten". As long as I keep my $180K the school is just fine.
Rant off.

[JC5123]

The folks running the country now are doing a great job at destroying it.  Credit where credit is due.

The difference is that at least the clowns now CAN read the bills. They simply choose not to. Also, I think they know exactly what they are doing. My fear is that with our education system, the freshmen in a few more cycles won't be able to read the bills or be able to comprehend what they say even if they can read.