Since 2001, DC Schools has hired about 300 teachers per year. This year, even though school officials projected an equivalent enrollment to last year, Rhee hired 934 teachers who fit her mold of script readers and test preppers. Now she thinks she can get away with firing 229 experienced educators (story here on the human toll) with solid evals. Don't think so. From WaPo:
Brandishing signs that read "This is not Rheezistan" and "Sweep Her Out," demonstrators demanded reinstatement of the 388 school employees, including 229 classroom teachers, who were fired to close what Rhee has described as a $43.9 million gap in the system's 2010 budget. Teachers union leaders say that the fiscal crisis was contrived to purge the system of veteran teachers, an accusation Rhee denies.
A sense of frustration and pent-up anger permeated the gathering, one of the largest shows of labor muscle in the city in recent history. It was designed by organizers to ratchet up political pressure on Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who is running for reelection next year.
"We are tired of being quiet, of just accepting whatever Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee impose," said Leonel Popol, 49, a counselor at Cardozo High School. "The time has come to speak up."
Newly installed AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka called the layoffs "a cold, hard case of union busting" and pledged his support. "The labor movement is right here with you," he said. "We'll stand shoulder to shoulder with you for as long as it takes."
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, denounced the city for what she described as a lack of candor in handling the layoffs.
"We are not getting any real, valid, truthful information from DCPS," she said. [can Randi be this stupid, really?]
The rally occurred a day after teachers had taken their fight to court, filing a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court that seeks to enjoin the city from executing the layoffs. The dismissed school employees were placed on administrative leave and are scheduled to be dropped from the payroll Nov. 2.
The suit challenges Rhee's hiring of 934 teachers in the spring and summer, far more than the usual number. The union lawsuit says the number of newly hired teachers usually ranges from 250 to 350. That range is consistent with testimony to the D.C. Council this year from D.C. schools budget expert Mary Levy, who said the city averaged 294 new-teacher hires annually between fiscal 2001 and 2008.
"DCPS' attempt to disguise this mass discharge as a 'RIF' [reduction in force] caused by a 'budget shortfall' is clearly a pretextual attempt to sidestep the [Washington Teachers' Union] contract and to discharge a substantial number of veteran teachers," wrote teachers union attorney Lee W. Jackson.. . . .
Public humiliation rests at the high end of Michelle Rhee's capacity for eductional leadership. Her hiring and tenure as the Chancellor amounts to a massive Madoff-like fraud perpetrated on the people of the District. The caper required a truckload of Bill Gates' money, a quisling in the mayor's office, and the power of the Post and Jay Mathews to manufacture a Michelle Rhee fairy-tale for public consumption. Ultimately, the Time cover picture will stand as a small tragi-comic monument to the damage done by this criminal conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteLikely Ms. Rhee will be leaving and taking her broom with her soon. A while back the Chancellor even foreshadowed the hara-kiri she was contemplating and is in the middle of now. She told Mathews because she wasn't speaking to Mr. Turque at the time, "If I go down at the end of the day because I didn't play the political game right, that's okay with me," she said. "At least when you're making decisions that you believe are in the best interests of kids, you may not win in the end, but at least you can operate with a good conscience."
Lacking any discernible qualifications, her shocking appointment as D.C. Chancellor, can be understood only when you realize that Michelle Rhee was brought in to create chaos at every turn and inflict maximum damage on the district's public schools and its children. The forces of privatization behind this needed a cultist (Teach For America, New Teacher Project) and true believer in the job. Anyone else would have asked questions and refused to implement destructive or absurd policies. They could not be counted on to mindlessly take a sledgehammer to D.C.'s schools. The havoc that Rhee is now causing is no accident. It was the plan!
"The picture" and the whole Time magazine profile provides great insight into Rhee's character and true mission. In it she denigrates every other adult in the D.C. school system including her staff. She mocks teachers that dare speak of building an emotional connection with their students. She clearly and coldly exploits a true leader at Anacostia High, young Mr. Rhodes, to advance her agenda. She seems to have no use for children being nurtured emotionally in the classroom. Just teach them to read for the test! And make sure there's no poetry involved!