This article originally appeared in the Detroit News February 4 2025.

Imagine this: You pick up your child from school and smell alcohol on her teacher’s breath.

You ask another parent for advice and learn that it’s not the first time, or the second time or the third.

“How is this teacher still in the classroom with students?” you wonder.

You meet with the school principal, who tells you his hands are tied by the district’s union contract. The principal cannot fire the teacher until the fifth offense. Sounds ludicrous, right? Sadly, thanks to actions of the Michigan Legislature, this scenario is not just plausible, but probable.

In 1997, Bay City Public Schools and the local teacher's union agreed to a disciplinary process for teachers caught using alcohol or drugs on school property.

The Bay City union contract spelled out the process: A teacher’s first offense resulted in a written reprimand and the teacher was required to go through counseling. The second offense resulted in a three-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Third offense: a five-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Fourth offense: a 10-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Only upon the fifth offense could the district fire the teacher.

It gets worse. A teacher using illegal drugs at school got three strikes before she could be fired. Even teachers caught selling drugs could not be fired until their second offense.

In 2011, during former Gov. Rick Snyder’s first term, the Michigan Legislature reformed how schools discipline teachers. Local districts could no longer bargain with the union over teacher discipline. Given the Bay City contract, this made sense.

Bay City school and union officials responded to the 2011 reforms with a workaround: they simply moved the offending language to an appendix and noted it was unenforceable. But the language remained in the contract, ready to be reinvigorated if the law ever changed.

Well, the law just changed. Union-friendly Democrats controlled the Michigan Legislature during the 2023-2024 session. The Michigan Education Association bragged that two of its members would shape the education agenda in Lansing, with Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, chairing the Senate Education Committee and Rep. Matt Koleszar, D-Plymouth, chairing the House Education Committee.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also pledged to support the union agenda. Speaking at a 2023 MEA conference, she said, “I want you to know: I will be at the front of this fight every single day.”

Lawmakers passed bill after bill endorsed by the union, including a repeal of the law that kept teacher discipline off the bargaining table.

Bay City is now free to reinstate its drunk teacher rules, and other school districts are free to adopt similar rules.

How do we solve this? First, the Legislature should give the public the right to watch negotiations between school boards and local unions. Parents and taxpayers deserve to know what’s going on.

Second, the 2011 reforms should be reinstated. School officials need to deal swiftly with teachers who have substance abuse problems and are a danger to children. If a teacher shows up reeking of booze, parents expect immediate action, not a lengthy, bureaucratic process.

Third, it’s time to question whether Michigan needs public-sector collective bargaining at all. As things stand, parents have little ability to hold teachers accountable if a union contract says otherwise. The Utah House just passed a bill to change this, and perhaps it is time for Michigan to do the same.

Michigan parents should demand that school districts stop protecting dangerous teachers. The people running our schools must do better.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.