Flint Community Schools is shut down Wednesday after more than 100 teachers called in sick.

In Michigan, it is illegal for public employees to willfully skip out on working, even in response to actions by the employer. That includes teachers.

Flint Community Schools broke the news to parents:

All school buildings will be closed today due to 119 United Teachers of Flint, MEA/NEA employees calling in sick today. ... The district certainly does not appreciate how this unexpected school closure will impact our families. While the district understands that this school closure will hurt our scholars more than anyone else, the district hopes that UTF employees will return to work tomorrow, so scholars can be educated tomorrow.

The union acknowledged the action. As it wrote on Facebook: “Actions, or the lack of action, has consequences. Statements don’t create change or resolve problems. Both sides sitting down to resolve them does. When will the district and the board stop talking AT the UTF, and start talking WITH them?”

The district and the teachers union currently have a contract, but were in discussions about a settlement agreement “address several critical issues.” The board of education rejected the union's proposal in January.

Teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan. Purposefully calling in sick when employees aren’t sick would seem to be covered by that definition.

According to state law:

“Strike” means the concerted failure to report for duty, the willful absence from one's position, the stoppage of work, or the abstinence in whole or in part from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in employment conditions, compensation, or the rights, privileges, or obligations of employment. For employees of a public school employer, strike also includes an action described in this subdivision that is taken for the purpose of protesting or responding to an act alleged or determined to be an unfair labor practice committed by the public school employer.

Flint schools have been shut down more than any other district in Michigan in recent years as a result of their response to COVID-19. Still, the school district got $156 million, more than 10 times the state per-pupil average.

According to MISchoolData.org, the Flint district has about 2,900 students enrolled in 2023-24.

Attorney General Dana Nessel this month issued a press release saying she saved Michiganders $3 billion in energy costs last year.

Nessel says her energy advocacy was responsible.

Her announcement, which came on the heels of Consumer Protection Week, reads, in part:

It should be noted that the complaint area Gasoline/Fuel/Energy, which previously occupied the number 3 spot on the top 10 complaints list with 1,015 complaints in 2022, fell to number 7 in 2023 with only 591 complaints. This fall can inarguably be attributed to Nessel’s energy advocacy, which saw her intervening in utility cases before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). The result was Michigan consumers saving nearly $3 billion in energy costs.

Michael Van Beek, director of research at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, questions how Nessel’s energy advocacy led to fewer complaints.

“That $3 billion might surprise consumers who are still paying more year-over-year for electricity and other energy needs,” Van Beek told CapCon.

Michigan residents, who already pay some of the highest energy rates in the nation, will soon face steep increases, says Jason Hayes, the Mackinac Center’s director of energy and environmental policy.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s green energy plan for Michigan is self-destructive, Hayes wrote in an article published by National Review.

If Whitmer gets her wish to transition the state to wind and solar, Hayes said, Michiganders will pay an additional $206 billion for energy over the next 25 years.

“That would translate to an extra $1,500 in energy costs per household per year,” Hayes wrote. This, he noted, would come under a more optimistic version of the governor’s plan.

Under a more likely outcome, Hayes wrote, Michiganders will face an additional cost of $386 billion by 2050.

Nessel has supported the move away from natural gas and nuclear in favor of solar and wind power. One high-profile effort is her work to shut down Line 5, a pipeline that transports petroleum into the state, as CapCon has reported.

Line 5, which runs under the Great Lakes, provides the equivalent of 540,000 barrels of fuel daily. Much of it fuels the Lower Peninsula.

As a state website explains: “Some of the natural gas liquids are refined into propane and used in the Upper Peninsula, while other products are routed for processing at oil refineries in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. The remainder crosses the St. Clair River for processing in Sarnia.”