More on the DCPS Firings
Late on Friday D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee fired 98 central office employees, taking a big step toward her promise to “create a culture of accountability.” Mafara Hobson, Rhee's spokesperson, has said the dismissals were based “partly on employee performance and on Rhee's plans to make the central office more efficient,” and the city's Department of Human Resources has not yet released the names of those terminated, in an effort to preserve their privacy.
Predictably, the newly-fired employees are (anonymously) crying foul, and the D.C. Council, which voted to give Rhee the authority to terminate non-union employees without cause in the first place, is waffling on where it stands, though with a few exceptions. WAMU reports that Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells is in favor of the terminations, while Council Chair Vincent Gray wants to confirm that employees were fairly evaluated before forming an opinion.
The Post’s Marc Fisher comes down clearly on Rhee’s side, writing yesterday, “Year after year, decade after decade, waves of reformers and politicians swore they would finally address the incompetence and corruption that saturated the D.C. system. They promised to clear out the deadwood and bloat from the central office. But until now, no one had the legal authority, political foundation or spine to do the deed.”
Fisher aside, the Post coverage has been disappointing, focusing less on the implications of the firings on the system as a whole than fanning the flames of controversy surrounding them. As widely read education blogger Andy Rotherham pointed out:
I'm pretty supportive of what Michelle Rhee is trying to do but that notwithstanding, wasn't Saturday's front page WaPo story on the firings in the central office woefully incomplete? If school officials were not forthcoming then that's one thing, but otherwise it was a bunch of anonymous assertions with very little authoritative reporting about what is going on.We were surprised to see so little heard from school staff – not unlike their coverage of the schools closings, the Post seemed to rely on comment from Council members and activist parents, and not the people who depend most regularly on support from the central office – the teachers and administrators who work in D.C. public schools. As for the unnamed central office sources arguing about the need to preserve “institutional memory”? Last time we checked, there were still around 600 employees at 825 N. Capitol – surely at least a few of them can provide some perspective.