Full story from the Detroit News here.
Eduwonk is all over this story here.
Here is an excerpt from the Det. News article:
A 16-day teacher strike may have cost Detroit Public Schools 25,000 students, district officials said Thursday, a potential loss that would mean a cut of $190 million in state aid and almost certainly another dramatic downsizing of schools and employees.
The gloomy estimate, which school officials acknowledge is not exact, comes in advance of Wednesday's official count day, when enrollment numbers are used to determine the amount of state funding to be allocated to districts across Michigan.
The district is embarking on a massive campaign to woo students back, with phone calls and letters to every student's home, enlisting the help of community groups and churches, in addition to count-day pizza and ice cream parties to make sure students are in school Wednesday.
"The situation is grim," said Jeff Mirel, author of "The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System," a chronicle of the district through 1981, who suggested staff and school cuts would be certain to follow.
There appears to be no upside to a strike. Kind of a damned if you do and damned if you don't thing. No strike and teachers would face a 5.5% pay cut. Strike (and get sold out with a crappy contract anyway - see here) and lose 100's of job positions.
I mused before if Detroit was a harbinger. Many told me it would be very different here in Chicago due to differences in the tax base, etc.
But I must confess, things don't look good. And my confidence in UPC getting a great contract is low, very low. Will CPS and UPC finally work together to organize "pizza and ice-cream" parties to get student numbers up? How inspired the teachers of Detroit must feel about now.
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