The White House is urging teachers, unions and local administrators in Detroit to resolve their differences that led to a teacher “sick out” that has closed in 94 of 97 schools.
Presidential press secretary Josh Earnest said President Obama so far is not taking sides in the dispute, which is taking place the same day the president plans to honor the nation’s best teachers at a White House event.
“What we’re urging is both teachers and local officials to do is to resolve their differences so that kids can get back to school,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Nearly all of Detroit’s public schools were closed Monday and Tuesday as unions urged teachers not to go to work to protest funding levels for teachers.
Teachers who receive their annual salary in 26 installments to cover summer months are risking not being paid for any work they do after April 28, according to a report in the Washington Post.
The school district will run out of emergency state funding at the end of June, making it impossible to make payroll over the summer.
The Detroit teacher “sick-out” so far has lasted two days, and Earnest said that raises serious issues about whether those children will be able to make up for that lost time during the school year. It also raises “public-safety issues” because “these kids are moving around unsupervised.”
“That is a real problem that the president is deeply concerned about,” he said. “We are urging them to come to an agreement that can put teachers and most importantly, students, back in the classroom.”
Obama is heading to Flint, Mich., Wednesday to meet with citizens and government officials and hear first-hand about the public health crisis over the lead discovered in the city’s water and federal and local efforts to respond to it.
Earnest said he didn’t know whether Obama plans to make a public statement about the teacher dispute or talk to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder about it during his trip.
