About 5,500 Detroit Public Schools teachers will get layoff notices as the troubled district prepares for an expected drop in fall student enrollment.And somehow, this news is not a surprise to the teachers' union president Keith Johnson. Guess he must be used to the seriously poor planning that leads to such slash-and-burn tactics.
The layoffs would take effect July 29, the district said Thursday afternoon in a release.
Non-renewal notices also will be sent to 248 administrators.
The notices are part of a process to allow the district time to assess staffing needs heading into the start of the 2011-12 academic year, according to the release.
"We knew the layoff notices were going to go out," Johnson said. "They gave one to everybody. It is a notice in case layoffs become necessary."We all know Detroit is in deep trouble, but 5,500 teachers? I have said it before, and I will say it again. It is hard to believe that even in Detroit, all these layoffs will come to be. And the ramifications of the stress this all causes because no one knows what the hell they are doing are tremendous.
Talented young teachers, too stressed to put up with instability in our already too unstable economy, leave the profession. Teachers get shifted around from school to school, hurting school cohesion. Specialty schools – often popular choices in large, inner-city school systems like Detroit – can suffer disproportionately, losing teachers that are hard to replace and causing loss of morale across otherwise committed school communities.
And of course, there are ties with parents that are ruptured. And loss of faith in a system that can only succeed if parents feel there is a good reason for them to be involved in their children’s education.
Unfortunately, there are people out there who really, really, really want to do away with public education. They don't need any help from those who are paid to run our school districts.
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