Schools are not job factories

Background: MEA President Iris Salters believes public schools exist to provide jobs rather than to educate children.

MEA President Iris Salters reveals one of the problems with public schools – the mindset that schools exist to provide jobs rather than educate children. She chastises Southfield school board members for contracting out transportation, custodial, and maintenance services. However, the board members are doing exactly what they were elected to do. As stewards of public money, they have a duty to be fiscally responsible while they fulfill their primary mission to educate students.

Perhaps if Salters’ duty were to the children rather than the employees, she would not have favored the costly health and retirement plans demanded by her union. Instead, 350 Southfield school employees now find themselves priced out of a job so more dollars can be spent on students.

[Letter to the Editor - The Detroit News. Published 04/30/2008.]