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D.C. teachers are preparing a protest for Thursday over the impending teacher layoffs announced last week by Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
An announcement posted on The Washington Teacher’s blog:
Rank and file educators will gather outside of the DCPS central office on Thursday, September 24, starting at 4:00 p.m. to protest teacher layoffs. We request that other laid off and terminated government employees, parents, students, city workers, residents, community activists, local leaders and the media join us in taking a stand for our teachers, students, and schools. We are baffled that Chancellor Rhee hired over nine hundred new teachers this summer, and that only one month into the school year announced that — due to a budget shortfall — she will make imminent teacher layoffs prior to the start of the fiscal year. Please join the rank and file this Thursday as we protest Rhee: The Teacher Terminator.
The site reports that “most of the lay offs will impact DC teachers and other school based staff including instructional coaches, custodians and even some principals and vice principals, etc.”
In a Huffington Post piece on Friday called “Mass Teacher Layoffs One Hell of a Power Play by Michelle Rhee,” teacher Dan Brown offers thoughts on how Rhee’s “latest gambit might be her wildest. How can someone hire nearly 25% of their work force over the summer and then less than a month into the school year throw up her hands and move to lay so many off? Here’s how.”
Comments? Ideas? I’m at eniedowski@washingtoncitypaper.com, and on Twitter.