Monopoly Bargaining Worsens Teacher “Shortage”, Shortchanges Teachers

CEAFU members have long known that monopoly bargaining shortchanges teachers. Now teacher union officials’ very own monopoly bargaining contract rules are contributing to the so-called teacher shortage in Detroit and other Michigan school district. Mike Wilkinson has the story in Crain’s Detroit online.

In Detroit, as many as 260 classroom teacher positions are unfilled in the state’s largest district, prompting a shortage so severe that substitutes last year were the full-time solution in more than 100 classrooms.

And with fewer new teachers graduating from college every year, pressure is mounting to find qualified teachers. The situation has left teachers working harder in overcrowded classrooms for underwhelming pay — they’ve seen their pay frozen and cut repeatedly in a district that’s beset with problems both financial and academic.