From Bill Turque on the growing mystery surrounding Rhee's fascinating game:
So does the $34 million surplus Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee described to the D.C. Council Tuesday actually exist?
This is the money she said was now available in the FY 2010 budget, three months after laying off 266 teachers, to underwrite part of the five-year, 20 percent pay package in the proposed labor contract. It's ultimately up to Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi to make that call.
Rhee said again Wednesday night that she has been assured by a staff analysis that the cash was there. But e-mails obtained by D.C. Schools Insider show that as recently as March 31, one week before the tentative agreement was announced, Rhee was raising significant doubts about the existence of the windfall.
On March 29, she received an-email from George Dines, Gandhi's assistant assigned to DCPS. He reported evidence of a surplus estimated between $36 to $53 million in the schools budget for FY
From Bill Turque on the growing mystery surrounding Rhee's fascinating game: