The debate triggered by a $34 million math mistake critical to the survival of a proposed D.C. teachers contract became more complicated Thursday by the revelation of at least two other major budgeting blunders.
D.C. Public Schools does have a surplus of more than $34 million for school operations, said a letter from Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi to Chancellor Michelle Rhee. But it also has a roughly $20 million deficit in central office operations, and a nearly $10 million deficit for overtime and special pay.
Gandhi’s revelations would mean that instead of the hoped-for $34 million surplus, less than $5 million remains to help fund retroactive pay increases central to the teacher contract negotiated by Rhee and the Washington Teachers’ Union last week.
“Additionally, given the history of the DCPS budget, I am concerned about issues that might emerge, further restricting the availability of funds,” Gandhi wrote. Rhee hotly disputed Gandhi’s assertions. “Information supporting a $34 million surplus had gone undisputed by the interim CFO [George Dines] as late as Monday of this week,” she said. The letter follows news Wednesday that Gandhi’s office had provided Rhee with figures at the end of March showing ample resources to fund the contract in fiscal 2011, despite their claims earlier this week to the contrary. Gandhi expressed incredulity in his letter that no discussion has taken place “to date” regarding the surplus. Sources within DCPS, however, said that numerous discussions have taken place between the schools and the budget office about the contract and its funding since it was announced on April 7. The two departments have engaged in a nearly weeklong dispute over who is to blame for utter confusion over actual dollars to pay the system’s nearly 4,400 teachers. Two hundred and sixty six teachers were fired in the fall because of what was then thought to be insufficient funds. In February, it became clear that average teacher’s salary, a critical number used to determine available funds, was overstated to the tune of about $34 million. The errors, and the debate that they have generated, have put at risk the teachers’ contract, which has been hailed by education reformers as a model for urban school districts.
