Main Street

The Teacher of the Year is Unemployed

This is where budget problems eventually lead.

An endless summer awaits many of Detroit’s teachers and school buildings this Thursday. Detroit, one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in America, is about to add thousands of teachers to its unemployment rolls and dozens of buildings to its vacancy problem. A third of this cash-strapped city is reported to be vacant already. The closing of more schools could be the death knell for many of the remaining neighborhoods in these dire economic times.

Although the city has a five-year plan to renovate or replace school buildings, funded in part by federal stimulus, 32 buildings will be closed permanently by the end of the year, with a dozen more to follow over the next two years.

In addition to closing buildings and consolidating shrinking enrollment, the district pink-slipped 1,983 teachers, including Michigan’s 2007 Teacher of the Year, Kimberly Kyff.

Tell me again how it’s more important to reduce the deficit by a small amount in the short term than it is to employ teachers, maintain school buildings, and educate America’s kids. Tell me how things like this—widespread across the country, if not to the same degree as in Detroit—help us rebuild our economy.

Tags: Education, unemployment