Photo by M.V. Jantzen

In a blow to the Washington Teachers’ Union, the D.C. Superior Court today rejected the union’s bid to reinstate the 266 teachers who were fired by DCPS in October. The teachers were laid off as part of a large reduction in force (RIF) that DCPS has maintained was necessitated by a $4.4 million budget shortfall. According to the Post, Judge Judith Bartnoff argued that the WTU failed to prove any of their allegations against Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, specifically that, “the RIF was not a budget-driven layoff but an illegal mass firing, and that the shortfall cited by Rhee was a sham and a pretext for dumping older teachers.”

In her opinion, Judge Bartnoff wrote that,

“At most, the plaintiff showed that a large number of teachers were hired in the spring and summer of 2009, which DCPS does not dispute. But the plaintiff presented no evidence to refute the evidence presented by DCPS that its budget included those new teachers at the time they were hired, as well as the returning teachers, that DCPS was planning for the new school year based on the budget that was passed in early June and its budget agreement with the Council Chairman, and that the RIF was instituted in response to the $21 million budget reduction enacted by the City Council on July 31.”

In response, the WTU has called an emergency meeting for all RIF’d teachers. The layoffs renewed tensions between Rhee and the WTU, and were the subject of a marathon 18-hour City Council hearing last month.