DPS Hiring Freeze Gets Heated Reaction
Detroit Public School's Financial Manager Robert Bobb has issued a spending and hiring freeze while he lobbies lawmakers for state help in erasing the district's $327-million- budget deficit. WWJ Newsradio 950′s Florence Walton has reaction from Keith Johnson, the president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers.
"It is difficult for me to understand how Mr. Bobb could authorize a hiring freeze when we still have over 100 teaching positions that have not been filled by certified contract teachers, plus we still have 900 classrooms that are over the class size limit, which indicates we need additional teachers." Johnson said, adding, "Robert Bobb is asking substitutes to perform the duties of a regular contract teacher yet he wants to pay them as though they are day-to-day subs."
Although a spokesperson for Bobb said that concessions to the hiring freeze can be made for the filling critical teacher vacancies.
Bobb is nearing the end of his two-year appointment by Governor Jennifer Granholm.
