Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty and his hand-picked chancellor of public schools, Michelle Rhee, have all but declared war on the city’s public schools in the last year.
The assault is broad: closing almost two dozen public schools, selling property to private developers to further gentrification, firing teachers and staff, attacking the teachers’ union and working to expand charter schools at the expense of public education.
Fenty hired Rhee in June 2007. With little or no consultation with the local community or the Washington City Council, Rhee announced the closure of 23 public schools, which would later be revised to 21.
When the community organized to protest, Rhee and Fenty attempted to fragment the widespread opposition by holding 23 simultaneous meetings in January at each of the targeted schools. Parents, teachers and students refused to fall for the trick, and a crowd of 200 met in the Washington City Council building to denounce the closings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no schools in the much wealthier, overwhelmingly white Ward 3 were slated to close.
On Oct. 2, Rhee unilaterally bypassed labor contract negotiations with the teachers’ union, giving herself authority to fire teachers at will. She had demanded that teachers give up their tenure protections in exchange for the possibility that they might receive significantly larger salaries—$100,000 a year or more. By that point, Rhee had already fired more than 100 staff workers, not even allowing suddenly dismissed supervisors to speak to their staffs before being shown the door.
Those who think the Democratic Party offers solutions to the problems facing public schools should take note of the fact that Rhee and Fenty were invited to speak at a public forum at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer to sell their brand of “school reform.”
The majority of teachers feel a personal connection to their students and a strong sense of responsibility for their education. Many sacrifice countless hours of unpaid personal time to plan classes or grade homework. For most, teaching is much more than just a job.
George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers Union, condemned Rhee’s approach, saying, “You cannot fire your way to a successful school district. It will not happen.” Parker vowed that the union would take steps to protect its members, including “court proceedings, arbitration, and teacher job actions.”
