Detroit Teachers Protest Cuts

Aug 31, 2009

Nearly 2,000 teachers and staff members demonstrated at the main office of the Detroit Public Schools on Tuesday, August 25. The workers were protesting concessions being demanded by DPS financial czar Robert Bobb. Those concessions include a 10 per cent wage cut with wages to be frozen for five years, drastic increases in health care costs, limits on use of sick pay and elimination of penalties the district pays for exceeding class size or forcing teachers to work during their prep periods.

The protestors enthusiastically shouted “Robert Bobb has got to go!” One teacher said, “I’ve been teaching for 30 years and now that I’m getting older and close to retirement, they want to charge me more for medical care!” Another teacher said, “It’s not about A, B, C. It’s about 1, 2, 3, because they want to run the schools like a business.”