Detroit Teacher Sickout Strike Causes 80 Percent of Students to Miss School

About eight out of every 10 Detroit Public School students have been impacted by the series of sickouts their teachers have imposed upon the district.

According to a Mackinac Center analysis, there have been 34,490 students impacted by the sickouts. The district has 42,356 students in grades K-12 in 2015-16, according to the state of Michigan. The analysis was based on the reporting of the Detroit Free Press on the number of schools closed due to the string of sickouts that date back to December of this school year.

“The illicit sickout action in Detroit is mushrooming out of control, now having affected more than 30,000 students,” said Ben DeGrow, the education policy director for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “How many of those students’ families must be wondering what it would take to get into one of the city’s charter schools or private schools that remain open today?”