WTU President George Parker. Photo by Meaghan Gay for DCist.

As we mentioned in the Morning Roundup, the D.C. public schools announced yesterday that an unexpected $40 million budget shortfall will require spending cuts and personnel reductions by the end of October. In a letter to teachers, George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, expressed anger that the WTU was not notified of the cuts prior to yesterday’s announcement, and suggested that the coming layoffs could jeopardize the ongoing contract negotiations. Contract talks were recently rumored to be nearing to a close after almost two years of stalemate.

Parker, and other union advocates like teaching blogger Candi Peterson, also voiced suspicion that layoffs might target what Peterson calls “veteran teachers of color.” “This is something that we as a union are going to be looking at very, very carefully,” Parker told The Post. Chancellor Michelle Rhee said yesterday that “every staff member will be on equal footing” when it comes to personnel decisions, but from the WTU’s point of view, that shouldn’t be the case – current policy is designed to give preference to tenured teachers with seniority over new hires, an issue that has been at the center of the ongoing contract negotiations.

Full text of Parker’s letter is below: