Laid-off D.C. Public Schools teachers, along with students, parents and ommunity members, are planning a Monday morning protest against last week’s round of school employee firings.
“We will be wearing black,” Candi Peterson wrote in bold letters in an e-mail to rally her supporters. Peterson, who runs a blog called The Washington Teacher, is one of Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s most outspoken opponents.
Nearly 400 D.C. Public Schools employees, including 229 teachers, received notice Friday that they had been placed on administrative leave and would be out of a job on Nov. 2. Northeast’s McKinley Tech High School, where the rally will be held, was one of 12 schools to lose five or more teachers.
The district, with the backing of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office, issued a statement attributing the cuts to an unanticipated $44 million budget shortfall along with efforts to match funding to enrollment. The latest student count shows enrollment at more than 45,000, up from projections.
But though some of the district’s 128 schools saw enrollment go over projections, others have fewer-than-expected students, and therefore fewer-than-expected dollars to fund teachers and staff.
However, opponents such as Peterson and the Washington Teachers’ Union leadership have called the budget shortfall figure into question, saying there was nothing unexpected about it. They condemned most vehemently the district’s decision to hire 900 new teachers over the spring and summer.
Council Chairman Vincent Gray reacted to the school district’s layoff announcement Friday by announcing an oversight hearing to be held later this month.
Gray said there was “no evident basis for the mayor’s assertion about budget cuts,” adding that the decision to fire teachers “alarmed [D.C.] families, sent shock waves through the teaching community and disrupted the education of our students.”
He attached figures showing that with federal stimulus dollars, perpupil funding is several hundred dollars per student higher than last year. Stimulus dollars are available only for two years, however.
School districts were encouraged by the U.S. Department of Education to use them on one-time expenditures, such as equipment and computer programs, and not to supplement teacher salaries.
