The tension between Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the D.C. City Council may be a given by now, but the outright hostile language can still be a bit surprising. Last night Rhee testified for three hours with regard to the $100 million budget reshuffling that we wrote about on Tuesday. According to the Post, she was met by Council members' harsh statements and outright threats, "This is a joke," and "You keep disagreeing with [Marion......

While other school districts like Fairfax County and states like Massachusetts are in the midst of slashing schools budgets and cutting funding for education initiatives, D.C. seems to have found ways to avoid such measures, at least for a while. As we mentioned in the Morning Roundup, yesterday Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee asked the Council to approve a relocation of $100 million from the approximately $750 million schools budget. According......

Earlier this afternoon D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty made his first public appearance in several days (since re-injuring his fractured foot) to announce that he had secured funding to keep the D.C. Public Library system open full-time. Last week DCPL head Ginnie Cooper said that staff budget reductions would force the library system to shutter its branches on Fridays and reduce hours on other weekdays. At the time, Mayor Fenty said he was committed to locating......

So the D.C. Public Library system is facing a $2 million reduction in next year's staff budget. The word is that all city libraries will probably have to close on Fridays, as well as reduce hours on weekdays and close completely five kiosk branches that serve needy neighborhoods. This is bad news. Mayor Fenty has said, however, that he is committed to finding the money to keep the libraries open at their normal hours. And......

Last week, Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee offered up their FY 2009 schools budget, which at $773 million, is about $23 million less than the current year’s budget. However, because of savings from the scheduled closures of under-enrolled campuses and recent mass firings from the DCPS central office (about $44 million) ,as well as the shifting of special education responsibilities to the Office of the State Superintendent ($231 million), the budget actually increases the amount......

The Washington Post has a fantastic story on today's front page accusing Sen. Mary Landrieu (D.-La.), in her role as chairwoman of the Senate's D.C. appropriations subcommittee up until earlier this year, of forcing an unproven reading program on the District's kindergarten and first grade classrooms in exchange for $80,000 in donations from the company that designed it. It's a long story, but it's worth reading all the way through. On the surface, it tells......

It's Friday, Washington, and reactions are still rolling in to Metro's approval of its largest fare hikes ever. We all knew this was coming, but we're curious to hear if any of our readers actually plan to make changes to their commuting habits come January 6, when the increases will go into effect. Do you think you'll ride Metro any less, or finally make the leap to using SmarTrip? Let us know in the comments.......