D.C. Council, Rhee spar over schools' budget gap
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
October 6, 2009
The D.C. Council and public school system are at odds over a $24 million accounting gap in the schools budget, as community anger grows over last week's layoff of 388 school employees.
As a result, opponents of Chancellor Michelle Rhee have used her silence as evidence of her desire to rid the system of older, mostly black teachers. More objective critics worry that confusion over the budget will distract from productive conversations about real reform.
Rhee fired 388 school employees Friday, including 229 teachers, blaming an unanticipated $44 million budget shortfall and efforts to match funding to enrollment.
"It's a mystery -- we can't understand it," said D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray's spokeswoman, Doxie McCoy. Gray has announced he will hold a hearing about the layoffs this month.
McCoy listed the $20 million in cuts made by the council on July 31 to help close the city's projected $666 million budget gap: about $3 million due to recalculated enrollment projections, about $9 million due to cutting summer school in 2010 and about $8 million from total per pupil expenditures.
"There's no confusion there," she said. "But we have no idea what the $44 million is."
What the school system does know, it's hesitant to explain. Rhee on Monday delayed a detailed explanation, leaving spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway to answer in part.
On top of the council's reduction at the end of July, Calloway cited two other factors.
First, she said, the central office in past years has been able to provide "flexible" money for schools on top of their basic budget. This year, that money is gone, but Calloway could not explain where it went.
"A lot of schools decided to use that money for extra teachers that weren't tied to student enrollment numbers," Calloway said.
The third piece, she said, was "costs associated with leave and severance for the employees."
Essentially, firing 388 employees requires paying them for one month after they have been fired and cashing out all of their unpaid leave. A simple calculation shows that if the average salary of the laid-off employees were $50,000, then the school system would owe about $1.6 million for one month of severance pay.
Anne Martin, executive director of D.C. School Reform Now, worries that Rhee's lack of clarity is counterproductive. She cited two issues: first, the budget, and secondly, how the school system is deciding which teachers are fired.
"If they were more clear on the first, they could focus on the second," Martin said. "And the second is a monumental issue key to reform: basing employment on student achievement instead of tenure."
