Just Cause, or "Just 'Cause"?
Late last week, news broke that 75 probationary (non-"tenured") teachers who were improperly fired under then-DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee would be re-instated.
In covering the coverage, a writer over at theWashington City Paper said,
Rhee's acolytes, no doubt, will say that it is another case of a bureaucratic system more geared to protecting employees than to serving kids. But it's also another indication that speed -- the watchword of the Rhee era, and a key part of her legacy -- leads to carelessness, which in turn leads to massive setbacks like this one.How hard would it have been to just write a letter explaining why the employees were being canned? Aside from being the decent thing to do, it would have been prudent, too.
Here's a better question: Was there a good reason to fire them?
The writer-- and I suspect many others reading the story-- assumes that these teachers must have
