Last week the Council held the third hearing on the public school system and the firing of over three hundred teachers and administrators.

The first hearing was held several Saturdays ago and was attended by students. Dozens of students testified, mostly relaying their stories about what happened on the day the firings occurred.

Friday, October 23rd a second hearing was held that was opened to the general public. The hearing lasted from 10am until 4am the next morning. Many of the teachers who had been fired testified.

Last Thursday, Dr. Natwar Gandhi, the Chief Financial Officer and Michelle Rhee, Chancellor for the schools testified. Like the previous hearings, the hearing lasted over eight hours and included many tense exchanges between the Chancellor and Councilmembers. The central issue that caused these hearings was the reduction in force (RIF) of the employees. Because of the outcry, Chairman Gray scheduled these hearings to get an explanation of what happened.

After much back and forth, it is clear that in order to stay within its budget, the school system had to identify a number of areas in which to cut their budget. During these difficult economic times, the elected officials have had to curtail spending increases all across the government. This includes the previously untouched public school system. In July, the Council and the Mayor froze school spending at the 2009 level. This was after a proposed increase had been approved earlier in the year in May. The school system had hired more teachers backed on the prior increase, then had to downsize. Instead of the usual, last in - first out, the Chancellor asked principals to identify who should be let go using a comprehensive approach. The Chancellor also decided not to roll back summer school and instead balanced the budget through the RIF process.

After this was explained, I am satisfied that Chancellor Rhee acted responsibly in carrying out her mission. Overall, the DCPS system is showing great improvement. I continue to support the Chancellor’s efforts and look forward to working closely with her as we make progress.