Budget Cuts. Failed Reforms. Detroit’s public schools have seen it all in recent years, and the results have been devastating. Throughout everything, however, Detroit’s teachers and support staff have remained dedicated to educating our students.
But now, the emergency manager wants to cut healthcare benefits yet again, which means our teachers and staff will have to spend thousands more each year.
Click here to send the emergency manager a letter telling him to reconsider these drastic cuts.
Detroit teachers have sacrificed for more than a decade. They haven’t had a wage increase since 2002; they took a 10 percent wage cut in 2011 and have forgone step increases. They have been burdened with increasing healthcare costs with decreasing benefits—they currently pay more than 20 percent of premium costs—and have lost assault pay when they’re victims of attacks at school. The list goes on.
But the latest proposed cut to healthcare benefits is a sacrifice they cannot afford. This cut would force hundreds of great teachers and staff to leave our public schools, while making it nearly impossible to attract talented new professionals to the district.
The results would be devastating to our kids and our community.
We don’t have to lose these great teachers and staff. Sign the petition today, and tell Emergency Manager Darnell Earley that our community, our students and our educators can’t afford these cuts.
They simply can’t.
In solidarity,
David Hecker
President, AFT Michigan
