Due to an accelerated decline in enrollment, Detroit has sent layoff notices to 430 teachers; those who received the notices will work until 18 December.

While this should be no surprise to anyone who observed the strike at the beginning of ths school year, union president Janna Garrison seems oddly indignant.

“It’s shortsighted and cruel for the district to play these kinds of games.  We’re going to lay the responsibility on (the district’s) shoulders,” she said.

She went on to criticize the district for its treatment of the teachers, saying, “The district doesn’t seem to be concerned what impact this has on its employees.”

It is curious that Garrison would accuse the district of being unconcerned about the impact of its actions.  When they forced the cancellation of school, the striking teachers did not seem to be concerned with the impact of their actions on the district or the students. 

The district was never blameless in the contract dispute, but the teachers made the decision to strike; without a doubt, the strike hurt a district already in decline.  In this situation, layoffs are not an ignoble retaliatory response.  In fact, considering its shrinking funding, it would be irresponsible for the district not to reduce its payroll.

If anything was “shortsighted and cruel,” it was the strike.  If the teachers believed layoffs would not occur in the wake of the strike’s effects on enrollment, then it was not the district that was shortsighted; it was the teachers who, it seems, could not see past their outstretched hands.