海角大神

An eight-month court battle 鈥撀燽etween Detroit's struggling school district and teachers accused of inciting illegal strikes 鈥撀爀nded Friday with a court decision in the teachers' favor.聽

Two teachers against the school district because their protests were essentially political rather than work-related, Ann Zaniewski聽reported for the Detroit Free Press.聽The court decided that if teachers see politics as the cause of work-related problems, then complaints about those work conditions 鈥� even taking the form of intentional sick-outs 鈥� receive First Amendment protection.聽

The ruling emphasized teachers' rights to protest, and signaled a victory for parents and administrators, wrote the 海角大神 Science Monitor's聽Stacy Teicher Khadaroo in January:

After more than a decade of losing enrollment and amassing debt largely under state-appointed emergency managers, the Detroit public school district could be on the verge of writing a new chapter for itself 鈥� one in which educators, students, and parents insist on taking back control of their destiny.

Through a series of 鈥渟ick-outs鈥� that forced more than half of schools to close in recent weeks, teachers 鈥渉ave effectively made the argument that we鈥檙e seeing a lack of accountability,鈥� says Thomas Pedroni, a professor at Wayne State University in Michigan who has studied the impact of education policies in Detroit and the state.聽

Teachers during the 2016 school year with strikes protesting the state's emergency management of Detroit schools, The Wall Street Journal reported. Leaders at the state and local level criticized them as hurting the already-struggling effort to educate Detroit's children, but the union insisted the strikes brought attention to problems hurting teachers and students alike.

鈥淚f the ceilings are falling down, we sweep up,聽,鈥� said Ellen Morgan, a 2nd聽grade teacher at Spain Elementary Middle-School, to WXYZ Detroit in January.

Detroit Public Schools聽accused Steve Conn and Nicole Conaway聽of leading teacher strikes 鈥� illegal under Michigan law 鈥� to protest the poor conditions in schools. But the court ruled in the teachers' favor, saying the sickouts were politically motivated, and therefore fair game for protest, because the teachers objected to the state's emergency takeover plans.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just people saying we need greater local control and engagement,鈥� said David Meens, an education researcher at the University of Colorado in Boulder, in an interview with the Monitor.

鈥淧eople are getting some skin in the game and taking up policy ... saying, 鈥榃e have a right to participate in this conversation.鈥� 鈥�

The school district and the state, which backed it both politically and with court costs, said sick-outs violated the聽Michigan Public Employment Relations Act, but the judge said this interpretation of the law聽"goes far beyond the scope" of the law and聽"would run afoul of First Amendment protections."聽

"I'm very happy, but I'm not surprised at all," Mr. Conn, one of the defendants, told the Detroit Free Press. "The judge clearly agreed with the rest of us that we were speaking on the political plane concerning the state takeover of the district."

One major cause for a May teacher strike 鈥� a threat that crushing debt would cause the district to withhold pay 鈥� was resolved July 1 with when the Michigan legislature created a new district called Detroit Public Schools Community District, leaving Detroit Public Schools聽with the sole function of collecting funds and paying off debt, and freeing up money for the schools' operating costs. 聽

"This influx of money just puts the Detroit Public Schools on an even footing with other education providers such as charter schools,鈥� Eric Lupher, the president of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, told the Monitor in June. 鈥淪afety, maintenance, and staffing issues still remain the same.鈥�