D.C. teachers go back to court
The Washington Teachers' Union has asked a D.C. a Superior Court judge to re-open its lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the teacher layoffs Chancellor Michelle Rhee ordered last October because of what she described as a budget crunch.
Union president George Parker and American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said Friday that the tangle of charge and counter-charge this past week involving Rhee's claims of a $34 million surplus in the school system budget--which she intended to use to fund the new proposed teachers contract-- make it imperative that they return to court. They're seeking reinstatement of the 266 teachers who lost their jobs. Judge Judith Bartnoff rejected union claims last fall that the budget crisis was fabricated by Rhee.
The union electronically filed motions to re-open the case late Thursday evening.
Earlier that day, District Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi said that an extra $34 million was available, but was offset by overspending in the school system's central office bureaucracy. Rhee countered by announcing that her staff had identified another $29 million that could be used to underwrite the contract.
