On Oct. 8, over 2,000 teachers, school employees, city workers and community activists protested Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty’s attack on the education system and public workers. The Rally for Respect, held at the District’s Freedom Plaza, was sponsored by the Washington Teachers’ Union and AFSCME. The main target of the demonstration was Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s recent announcement of hundreds of layoffs for public school teachers.
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Community activists, including members of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), unions and public workers representing all city agencies joined students to fight the layoffs. The students have been staging walk-out protests at their schools since the teacher layoffs were announced Sept. 30.
The layoffs are a part of the Fenty administration’s policy of dismantling the city’s public school system, which has included closing schools in working-class neighborhoods and illegally firing hundreds of office employees and school support staff.
Many of the rally speakers pointed out that the Fenty administration’s relentless attack on city employees is nothing more than attempt to bust the District’s unions and replace experienced teachers and public employees with lower-paid workers and private contractors.
George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers’ Union said, “This RIF (reduction in force) was one of two things. It was based on complete incompetence, or it’s an effort to get rid of folks whose hair is too gray.” Many of the laid-off teachers had decades of experience and will be replaced with newly hired, much less experienced teachers who will be paid an entry-level salary.
The layoffs of teachers and the continued assault on the District’s public education system has further mobilized the working class of the city. In recent weeks, taxi drivers, child care workers and other public workers who are facing RIFs and “reorganizations” of their workforce, have come together at rallies, community meetings and City Council hearings to defend the people who keep the city and its education system running.
