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Bringing respect back to school reform
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DC Council Chair Vincent Gray
What recent actions by DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee took place above the law, under the guise of so-called “management decisions?” That question came from Council Chair Vincent Gray’s office on Tuesday, as Gray continues to ponder an audit investigation into October’s firings of 266 public school teachers and staff. During recent hearings on the matter, Gray has certainly played to the camera, exclaiming how the numbers just don’t add up. “And I went to DC Public Schools, so I know my math,” Gray said. We won’t hold that against him.
Three hearings have been held on Michelle Rhee and Mayor Adrian Fenty’s decision to lay off hundreds of school employees. And instead of putting the matter to rest, the hearings have only emboldened Vincent Gray to ask even more questions on whether the layoffs were legal and ethical. Under oath, Chancellor Rhee and her chief financial officer testified they knew there was a budget deficit within DCPS in mid-July, but chose not to inform the Council. Rhee also argued that her decision to disregard a Council order to cut more than 9-million dollars from the summer school budget was made with students’ interests in mind. DCPS Chief Financial Officer Noah Wepman also confirmed that some of the schools’ budget problems were a result of the Chancellor’s hiring of more than 900 teachers during the spring and summer. Oops. One day after that testimony from Wepman, Rhee’s office issued a press release stating how the over-hiring of teachers did not create budget pressure, and that school officials were headed into the 2009-10 school year with no anticipated reduction of teaching staff.
Oops again. In early October, Rhee announced the mass layoffs. Council Chair Gray said what was especially puzzling to him were reports that teachers were still being hired after the mass firings. What’s more, Gray said Rhee has yet to offer documentation for the 43-million dollars in budget cuts she says prompted the firings. Gray maintains that he and his fellow Council members continue to be full partners in supporting school reform. But he said the Council continues to disapprove of the way the Fenty administration is going about it. “We’ve essentially heard how a secretive, go-it-alone leadership style can result in a series of bad decisions that disrupt our children’s education, said Gray. “We all signed up for change and we know change is hard. However, this is not the kind of education reform that anyone in the District of Columbia signed up for.”
Washington Teachers Union officials continue to say that Rhee’s mass layoffs were illegal. They say it was nothing more than a scheme designed at weeding out tenured teachers. These days, there are far fewer older teachers in DC public school classrooms, that’s for certain. Many argue that’s a good thing, given the years of poor performance system-wide. There’s just one problem: Michelle Rhee getting her story straight. Were her mass layoffs really due to budget constraints? Or was this just another part of her plan for school reform? Just tell the truth. That‘s all we want. And for Vincent Gray, he‘s started to look like the hero in this whole mess, which would certainly play well in any future mayoral bid. “In the coming weeks we will seek full answers to the questions and concerns raised at these hearings, and develop recommendations that will bring fairness, equity and respect back to school reform; help improve student progress; and create conditions that will ensure their long term success.”
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