Crisis in the Detroit School System Is Boiling Over.
BALDWIN: To Michigan, the crisis in the Detroit school system, it's boiling over. Nearly the entire district is shut down again, all the preschools are closed because hundreds of teachers called off sick because of dispute over their pay for a second day now in a row. This teachers protested the possibility they won't get paid past the end of June. That's because the district is about to run out of money. Union leaders, they are demanding city and state audits. They want to know, where is the money?</s>IVY BAILEY, PRESIDENT, DETROIT FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: You know, right now, we are talking about teachers not being paid for hours that they worked. But the bigger picture here is funding for Detroit public schools. And we know that we have been talking about this issue throughout this last year. And we want to have a quality school system and our children deserve to have that. And our parent want the same thing.</s>TERRENCE MARTIN, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, DETROIT FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: And so, when I say that the district needs to get control of finances, this goes back to not just this year, but previous years of emergency management. There's no cohesion here. And that's a grave concern to our membership and to the general public.</s>BALDWIN: You just saw her there in those pictures. She has met with the mayor as well. She is Randi Weingarten. She is the president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers union in the country. We have talked many times before. You find yourself in the thick of this, trying to help out. Where does everything stand right now, Randy?</s>RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: Well, isn't it -- it's just ironic, Brooke, that today is teacher appreciation day. The president of the United States is doing a reception right now, including a teacher from Detroit honoring teachers. And we have a situation in Detroit where the school system -- basically we heard a rumor this weekend that they were not going to pay people past the work done on April 28th. So what's happened is that we were effectively locked out for the last couple of days. And we have left no stone unturned today to try to find a solution to make sure that, you know, we can get back to school. But at the end of the day, people are entitled in America, that if they work, they get paid for that work. And that sends a very strong message, if you don't want to do that. And that's what's happened in the last couple of days.</s>BALDWIN: You know, I mean, you do this for the kids. This is about the kids. I know that the Detroit union president said the parents, they get. You know, they understand what's going on but not all parents do. The head of the Detroit parents network</s>WEINGARTEN: Well. Look, that's why we have done everything we could today and yesterday to find a solution. But at the end of the day, every person in America that works would say that we need to get paid for that work and ultimately most employers, if they were actually going to lock you out, they would have the - they would tell the world that they were closing up shop. This was even worse because they were saying to parents, no, there's not a problem and they were saying to teachers, of course, there's a problem. So at the end of the day, we understand what parents are doing and saying and we were actually making -- we are actually making contingency plans for tomorrow to find churches and other places where we could teach at, you know, if this goes on. But most importantly, the bottom line is, it's not American to actually ask people to work and not pay them. It's, frankly, wedge theft. And that's what was going on here, and that just unacceptable.</s>BALDWIN: Randi Weingarten, I appreciate your passion. Let's stay in touch. Hopefully this can get worked out as soon as possible.</s>WEINGARTEN: We're trying everything.</s>BALDWIN: I believe you. Randi, thank you so much in Detroit for us. Detroit, Michigan. And thank you so much for being with me here, of course, on this primary day in Indiana. A lot to talk about. Polls are still open for the next couple of hours. Let's send things to Washington now. "The LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.