DETROIT (AP) - A strike by 7,000 Detroit Public Schools teachers is causing parents to switch their children to suburban and charter schools and threatens to derail the district's efforts to eliminate a $105 million deficit, administrators told a judge yesterday.

Michigan's largest public school district seeks a back-to-work order for the Detroit Federation of Teachers, which struck after rejecting a proposed two-year contract with a 5.5 percent pay cut and health care copays of up to 20 percent.

"The strike continues to restrict our ability to turn around the image of the Detroit Public Schools," Superintendent William Coleman told a judge considering the request.

To get a back-to-work an order, the 130,000-student district must show that the strike is causing it irreparable harm, Wayne County Circuit Judge Susan Borman told lawyers for both sides yesterday.

Borman has ordered intensive bargaining while considering the district's request. The talks continued yesterday afternoon.

A union lawyer pressed Coleman on why the district had not taken other moneysaving steps, including closing underused buildings, leasing or selling property, and trimming non-personnel costs.

"You chose, for a variety of reasons, not to close 30 (schools) this year, to close them next year," Eileen Nowikowski told Coleman.

Nowikowski also cross-examined the superintendent about revenue increases that could offset the proposed pay cuts.

Coleman acknowledged that some recent increases in state aid were not included in the budget. He said he postponed more school closings to assure parents that their children's new schools offered a better education than the ones they were leaving.

The teachers walked off the job Aug. 28 at the start of what was supposed to be a week of preparation for classes, which had been scheduled to start this week.

School administrators opened classes Tuesday, then canceled them indefinitely.

Administrators are seeking $88 million in concessions from the union, which also represents about 2,000 non-teaching employees, to help balance the district's $1.36 billion annual budget.

Detroit schools have lost about half their enrollment over the past two decades, and the district has been fighting to stem continuing losses, Coleman testified.

The schools earlier projected a loss of 7,300 students this fall, and the strike could significantly increase that number, he said.

Many surrounding districts have open enrollment policies, and there also are about 70 publicly funded, independently run charter schools in the city, Coleman said.

"Parents have stopped me and told me they're enrolling their children in suburban school districts," Coleman said. "The strike continues to restrict our ability to turn around the image of the Detroit Public Schools."

Oak Park schools Assistant Superintendent Carlos Lopez said the district had about 200 students from neighboring Detroit last year but now has about 800, 266 of whom have applied since the strike started.