Another interesting issue where the facts do not match the rhetoric from the media and the teacher unions. We have been hearing for years there is teacher shortage in many areas of Michigan especially Detroit. These supposed "teacher shortages," as we were told by the media and the teachers unions, were due to poor working conditions and low morale.

Well, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy looked into this claim and actually used facts not fiction or agenda to pre-determine the outcome. What a novel idea, right?

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy looked at data submitted by the Detroit Public School system to the State of Michigan and found a different result than the media or the unions proclaimed. The Mackinac Center found that the DPS system actually has a lower teacher to student ratio than the State's average. In fact the teacher to student ratio is actually lower than many "rich" school districts in the state.

Yes you heard that correctly. Interesting how conclusions are so different when you actually look at accrual data.

In the Michigan Capital Confidential article, the Mackinac Center's findings stated the following:

'As of December 2015, DPS had one teacher for every 14.53 students, compared to the state average of one teacher for every 16.13 students. Livonia Public Schools has one teacher for every 16.80 students and Plymouth-Canton Community Schools has one teacher for every 18.48 students."

Oh, for those of you who might be saying this is probably a recent phenomenon due to students leaving Detroit's traditional public schools, you would not be correct. The article states:

'For several years the ratio of DPS teachers to students has been much lower than the state average. In 2011-12, DPS had one teacher for every 13.62 students while the state average was one teacher for every 16.14 students."

Now you have to ask yourself why have the media organizations and the teacher unions mislead us? I did and the answers I came up with are as follows:

The media was lazy and just reported what the teacher's unions told them and did not bother to check

The media had an agenda and did not care what the data stated

As for the teacher's union, it was purely agenda driven and their greed for taxpayer money.

Now you know the facts.

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