For those who have never heard of those, it's when a large number of teachers call in sick on the same day, resulting in school being cancelled due to an inability or refusal to fill all of the spots with subs.
I can't say that I'm privy to any backroom discussions, so I don't know if these are coordinated, though it seems likely that they are. And though I don't find school being closed ideal, here's some real talk:
Teachers go to school sick all. the. time.
Lately, probably even more than they used to, because Michigan is experiencing a substitute teacher shortage on top of a full-time teacher shortage. Class sizes have risen. Some districts are forcing teachers to teach on their prep period to cover classes without subs. I've even seen places that combined two elementary classes, putting 40-50 children in one classroom, because they didn't have a sub. If teachers actually stayed home when they're sick, as undoubtedly some of those calling in to the sickout are, schools couldn't or wouldn't run. Schools, like almost every other business (yeah, schools are a business now, I went there) run with no slack. So many teachers go to work while they're sick.
Some more real talk: Teachers have been blamed for their students' lack of success, despite the amount of money, time (recent studies show that the average full-time public school teacher works 60 hours a week), and energy they put in. Legislators don't show up every day to take care and teach of 25-50 human beings at a time. Emergency financial managers don't take multiple developmental stages into consideration on a moment-by-moment basis. Legislators and emergency financial managers can call in when sick without feeling that they're letting people down. Heck, they can go to the bathroom without feeling that they're letting people down.
Not to mention that legislators and emergency financial managers haven't been given more work to do with less pay and worse benefits. (Darnell Earley, the new DPS emergency manager, makes about $221,000 per year while telling teachers they deserve less than a quarter of that.)
Somehow, emergency financial managers and legislators aren't blamed when the things they're in charge of go badly. (In fact, if you're Darnell Earley, as the emergency manager of a large city, you can poison the children with toxic water, and the consequence is getting promoted to managing the largest school district in the state.)
Nope, financial managers and legislators aren't blamed for things.
Things like making sure there's enough money to maintain school buildings so that schools don't have electrical outages on random days.
(Oh, you didn't know that DPS has also been having school closures from power outages when there hasn't been a storm?)
Things like making sure teachers have enough supplies for every student.
Things like keeping track of how many students are in each classroom so they don't exceed the legal maximum.
Things like making sure it's impossible for principals to steal money (oh, sorry, it was EAA, not DPS, being indicted for that) that was supposed to fund instructional time for students.
Sickouts aren't ideal, but no one has listened or made positive changes when teachers have voiced their concerns through typical channels. If you have a suggestion that doesn't involve teachers working for free, abysmal working conditions, larger class sizes, or other poor outcomes, I'm sure they'd love to hear it.
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