mortiz050

Looks like there's an adult in the room. Natwar Gandhi, the DC CFO is refusing to certify the negotiated contract because it is premised on funds that might or might not be there. That's what the article in the Washington Post will read tomorrow. Certification by the CFO is a requirement in order for it to be sent out to the WTU membership for a vote.It just came to light in the past few days

City Councilmemebers are demanding Michelle Rhee's "report card," and according to the Washington Post's Bill Turque, the unions want a meeting to get answers. All this because Michelle Rhee premised paying for the new teachers contract on a $34 Million surplus that DC Chief Financial officer Natwar Ghandi says isn't there. According to Ghandi, the Rhee administration overspent in the central

Teaching asks a lot of teachers. An effective school system is one that inspires teachers to give their all for a life of inspired teaching. A sick school system is one with a culture of mistrust, cynicism, and disrespect. It is one run at the whim of autocrats based on fear. The culture becomes us vs. them. As Diane Ravitch argued on her blog a few weeks back, there are two kinds of

On Wednesday, April 7th I attended the WTU informational session on the proposed new contract. Two things that jumped out immediately were the large pay increases and the assurance that tenure would not be removed. I was happy to see that we have moved beyond the false notion that tenure means a job for life, when in actuality it serves as protections for basic due process.We received an

WTU president George Parker has called a membership meeting for Wednesday, April 7th at McKinley HS, to review the details of the tentative agreement signed with DCPS. Mike Debonis of the City Paper published today a summary of the agreement and a leaked Q & A piece prepared by the WTU. The contract will be retroactive to 2007 when Michelle Rhee's tenure as Chancellor began. Negotiations have