Detroit Teachers Tentative Agreement

The Detroit Free News is reporting that the School District and the Detroit Federation of Teachers has reached a tentative contract.

"The package is not everything we hoped it would be, but we believe it's enough for our teachers to get back to work," Garrison said.
The 3-year deal that's on the table would mean the union's 7,000 teachers would give up concessions the first year, get a 1% raise the second year and a 2.5% raise the third year. The concessions are tied to fringe benefits and health care benefits and call for more union members to pay a portion of their premiums.
Coleman said the district didn't get all it asked of the teachers, either. The concessions will amount to roughly $64 million in savings for the district. But it is short of the $88 million Coleman said the state's largest school system needed to balance its $1.36 billion budget.
We didn't get everything we needed, but it was important to get the children back in school, he said.

I like to see what is going on in other states when I think things are bad in Wisconsin. On the surface it doesn't seem that the teachers got too much but I've been around long enough to know that what gets reported is not always the whole story. At any rate, I'm certain everyone is relieved and ready to go back to work!