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 Barry’s (D-Ward 8) claim Rhee gives more info to the media than to the council] and you won’t be around here too long.”

Yikes. The Council members mostly seemed to show confusion over the documents Rhee submitted, including spreadsheets that didn’t always break-out important facts, such as the number of physical education teachers. Barry and Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) eventually filed a “disapproval resolution,” which temporarily blocks any council action on Rhee’s proposal.

Rhee defended her proposal, saying she tried to find the right balance of information to pack into a proposal, and, for greater transparency, noted that the 2010 budget would be made available to the public by late-February, months earlier than this year’s was released. Read the rest of the Post’s write-up for the full bitter exchange, and check out our Schools Roundup next Tuesday for more.

Photo by grundlepuck