Nearly all schools in Detroit were closed Wednesday
 due to a massive teacher “sick out,” preventing 
students from attending class.
Teachers have complained about over-crowded classrooms, poor school conditions, and 
dissatisfaction with the idea of charter school 
growth in Michigan.
The teachers’ sick-out includes a planned 
march, which will conclude near a venue 
being visited by President Barack Obama
Wednesday. Meanwhile, 46,000 kids are 
unable to attend school in Detroit.
Among those 46,000, it’s likely that less
 than 4,000 of them can read proficiently.




According to the U.S. Department of Education, 
Eight percent.
And just seven in 10 students graduate.
But lack of progress is due not to a lack of
 resources in Detroit public schools, which
According to the Mackinac Center and a 
separate analysis by Randan Steinhauser:
– About 75 percent of the annual District 
budget goes toward paying employees
 covered by its current collective bargaining
 agreement for teachers.
– Out of a new $7,450-per-pupil grant the 
Detroit school district will receive this year, 
$4,400 will be spent on debt servicing and
 benefits for teachers who have retired.
– The average Detroit Public Schools (DPS) superintendentmakes between $121,091 and 
$178,871 a year.
– The superintendent can select up to two
“professional associations” (unions) to be a 
member of each year, and the district
 (taxpayers) will reimburse his membership dues.
– DPS has a debt of over $3.5 billion, which
 includes unfunded pension liabilities.
Funneling money into a mismanaged school
 system has not created an environment 
conducive to improving academic achievement 
in Detroit.
Serious reforms to the district are necessary. 
Policymakers in Michigan would do well to 
enable every Detroit child—and every child 
in the state—to exercise school choice through
 the use of education savings accounts (ESAs), 
accounts that enable families to harness the 
funds that would have been spent on their 
children in their assigned pubic school to craft a customized education plan. They can begin by 
considering how to tackle the barriers to school