EMU staff: We won’t work in Detroit
Union leaders wary of plan for new district
As Eastern Michigan University’s Board of Regents voted Tuesday to take part in a new school district to reform Michigan’s worst performing schools, faculty leaders promised not to do any work in Detroit that might help bust union contracts.
Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts would lead the new district , called the Education Achievement System, or EAS. And he has the power to nullify or change union contracts — a sore point. EMU President Susan Martin said no faculty would be assigned to any work in a school in Detroit. But union leaders were skeptical, saying Monday’s announcements appeared to pledge faculty involvement to help turn around Michigan’s failing schools, starting with 34 DPS schools. The new district idea resembles others created to deal with failing or troubled school districts. One of its key tenets is to increase money spent on classroom instruction from 55% to 95% of a school’s budget. It’s unlikely the EAS will be able to reach that goal, predicted Mike Griffith, a senior analyst at the Education Commission of the States. He said the national average is 65%. “There are things you need in a school — administrators, lunchroom staff, secretaries. … Those come to more than 5%.”
EMU faculty to respect union deals
Promise comes as board OKs DPS plan
Eastern Michigan University faculty members are promising not to do any work that might help bust existing public school teacher contracts, possibly crimping plans to use the faculty in a new statewide school district run by the university and the Detroit Public Schools. “We won’t have our membership involved in breaking union contracts,” said Howard Bunsis, the treasurer of the EMU faculty union. Gov. Rick Snyder announced a plan to create an Educational Achievement System, which would take in Michigan’s failing public schools, possibly starting with 34 DPS schools in about a year. At issue is the power of DPS emergency manager Roy Roberts, who would also be chairman of the new district’s governing authority. As a governor-appointed emergency manager, Roberts has the legal power to end or modify DPS union contracts and to negotiate contracts for the new district. A key ingredient of Snyder’s plan would be EMU’s willingness to move faculty from its college of education into struggling public schools to help train teachers and to work in other ways. Roberts said he was particularly interested in using faculty and their expertise to help students with special needs. EMU’s union leadership balked at the Board of Regents meeting Tuesday. Despite the protests, the regents approved the agreement to take part in the new district. The role of outside union members in a district run by a leader with legal powers to cancel contracts is but one gray detail that needs to be worked out. Some parts of the plan might need legislative approval and others are still in the planning phase. Louisiana’s example The Michigan district would be a new animal but based on an existing structure in Louisiana, which took in New Orleans Public Schools following Hurricane Katrina. A major difference between Michigan’s EAS and Louisiana’s Recovery School District is that the RSD transformed most of its New Orleans schools into independently-run charter schools. Chartering would be a possible course for Michigan’s future EAS schools. A school that shows adequate progress in five years may seek approval to become a charter school, return to its original school district or remain under the jurisdiction of the EAS. Some performance indicators are positive for New Orleans . The Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University studied 44 New Orleans charter schools’ test scores from 2005-06 to 2009-10. It concluded that the RSD charter schools were making gains in reading and math at a faster pace than others. Sen. Phil Pavlov, a Republican from St. Clair, said he’s working on draft legislation to help solidify the EAS. “I’m working on legislation to require the highest level of accountability and transparency,” Pavlov said. He predicted that the earliest the legislation would be introduced is late July. Communication worries EMU faculty members didn’t learn about the EAS until Monday morning from a news release, union President Susan Moeller said at the Tuesday meeting. “I am not here to debate whether the EAS is a good idea or not for Detroit. What I want to bring to your attention is that, again, President (Susan) Martin has ignored the faculty and violated the contract. … “Faculty need to be involved in the development and discussion of what is going to happen with this plan. They are the experts, and it cannot succeed without them. “There still has been no communication from President Martin or the dean of the (college of education) to the (college of education) faculty regarding what this agreement is all about.” The EMU faculty union wasn’t the only one to complain about lack of information before Snyder announced the plan on Monday. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, sent out a critical news release. “We are troubled at the lack of teacher and school employee voice in the current plan, especially in light of the hard work Detroit’s education unions and school district have already done in collaborating to develop and implement workable solutions for the city’s schools.” EMU President Martin said no faculty would be assigned to any work in a school in Detroit. “This is an opportunity. We certainly hope that faculty would be willing to work in some of these struggling schools,” she told the Free Press. Martin also said there was no intent to bust the teachers union or to exclude the faculty union from the process. “This came together very quickly. We certainly want to work with the faculty union going forward on how we can take advantage of this opportunity.”
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