A judge wouldn't block Detroit teachers from protesting horrible conditions in the city’s schools by calling out sick, so Michigan Republican lawmakers are planning to go after the teachers with a new law.
The legislation, sponsored by Senate Republicans, would shorten the amount of time – from 60 days to two days – that the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) has to hold a hearing on a complaint that a teacher has taken part in a strike. Teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan.
The legislation would also fine districts that don't comply with MERC's rulings. The proposed fine is 5 percent of a district's total state aid payment.
In addition, the legislation would enable the state superintendent to suspend for two years or permanently revoke the certificate of a teacher who was found to have participated in a strike. The union representing teachers who participated in a strike could also be decertified for five years if it's determined that a strike occurred.
So Republican lawmakers can screw Michigan teachers and students any way they want—rodents and rotting food and ceilings falling in and mold and fungus in the schools, Flint’s former emergency manager, indignity heaped on abuse—and teachers don’t get to protest. Not if they want to remain teachers, anyway, not if this bill passes. And Michigan Republicans have shown they’ll pass outrageous, scary stuff time after time.