Republican leaders in Lansing had some harsh words today for teachers who virtually shut down the Detroit school district with a “sickout.” That’s after they were told by the district’s state-appointed manager they could soon be facing payless paydays.
The emergency manager says it now looks like the district could run out of money as soon as June 30th, even though the Legislature approved an emergency stop-gap measure that was supposed to fund the district through the end of the year. That was supposed to buy lawmakers time to work on a larger-scale solution.
House Republican spokesman Gideon D’Assandro says the “sickout” doesn’t help that effort.
“This casts a lot of doubt on the ability of the district to manage itself and to get itself back up and running.”
The protest closed 90 schools and idled 40 thousand students as a state House committee is about to hold its first hearing on a 700 dollar bailout plan.