D.C. Schools to Lay Off Nearly 780 (Washington Post)

[diamond14]

D.C. Schools to Lay Off Nearly 780

By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 10, 2003; Page B01

D.C. school officials said yesterday that they plan to dismiss an estimated 771 employees by the end of January and will notify the affected workers by Dec. 29.

At a hastily called news conference, school administrators said they had not yet decided which positions would be eliminated. They said that the equivalent of about 545 full-time employees would be dismissed from individual schools and that 226 people who work for the school system in other capacities would be laid off.

Erste said that a disproportionate number of the dismissed teachers would be those teaching at the middle and high school levels. Those reductions, he said, would have less of an impact than cutting teachers at the elementary level, where students have one teacher for most of the day.

"It will have devastating effects in the black community," Wilson said. "What will our kids learn? We don't have supplies. You're cutting to the bone. We have nothing now. You're taking away our teachers."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50879-2003Dec9.html

[Parche]

1. but

I thought we were having a great rebound of the economy???
HA HA typical Republican lies

[Skittles]

2. someone has to pay for those tax cuts

looks like the children of DC certainly will be paying

[skippysmom]

3. "no child left behind"...

...my ass.

Lots of DC kids will be left behind. And Bushco can promote vouchers so we can privatize this whole damn system.

I hate what my country is becoming.

[Malva Zebrina]

4. I posted this the other day

This was in a press release from Americans United and distributed through e-mail. Not copyrighted Mods.

Measure Threatens Church-State Separation And Public Education, Says AU’s Lynn

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today criticized the House of Representatives for approving a wide-ranging legislative package that includes voucher subsidies for religious and other private schools in the District of Columbia.

The House voted 242-176 to approve the omnibus spending package Dec. 8.

Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn said the House has made a serious mistake.

“Voucher schemes divert scarce dollars from our public school system to private religious schools,” Lynn said. “They are bad for religion, bad for public education and bad for the taxpayers.”

Lynn called on the Senate to reject the omnibus bill. The $328-billion legislative package is controversial because it contains many pork-barrel provisions. The Senate is not scheduled to debate the legislation until next month.


Now this slashing and firing makes more sense to me. Get this passed, and firing all those people makes sense. Give them all vouchers--$328 billione eh? And that could not go into to improving the schools? Separate but equal. Get your vouchers heah!

[bleedingheart]

5. Gotta keep the population stupid if they are going to work for peanuts

in the Bush Economy...

No one cares anymore...

[MissMarple]

6. DC has a huge amount of $ per child, where does it go? Why isn't it

enough? And who is supposed to hold the superintendant and the school board responsible for what looks like educational malpractice? Private schools aren't going to help these kids.

[Muddleoftheroad]

7. They weren't learning anyhow

The D.C. school system is a complete failure. I am sorry for those who lose jobs, but I am more worried about the kids.

[Bandit]

8. And you know this how?????

Did the "Liberal Media" tell you this?

[Muddleoftheroad]

9. Nope

I am a survivor and escapee from D.C. Know it all too damn well.

[diamond14]

11. did you drop out of school ??? nt

.

[mobuto]

14. Are you kidding me?

The DC Public Schools are the worst performing schools in the nation. No bias, liberal, conservative or otherwise is going to change that fact. And they aren't bad because of a lack of funding, indeed they spend an enormous amount per child. They're bad because of administrative incompetence and a lack of qualified teachers.

[maxsolomon]

16. don't leave out the parents

my ma & brother in law teach 1st grade in a low-income neighborhood, and you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

the groundwork must be laid early, and there must be parental participation & expectations.

otherwise you're banging your head on a brick wall.

[Field Of Dreams]

10. Baltimore City Schools are in the same type of situation.

Just layed off hundreds of folks.

Two-week-without-pay furloughs may be coming for others still employed.

Happy Holidays! :eyes:

[lostnfound]

12. More people than jobs but still can't staff public services properly

Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Unemployment is very high, surplus of people; would be good for the schools to have more teachers and good for the nation to have less unemployment but NOOOOO, we can't think like that, can we?

[mobuto]

13. This could be a good thing

I don't know how they're going to structure these cuts, but the DC Public Schools are horrificly overstaffed. They pay a great many people to do absolutely nothing. The administrative inefficiency is simply breathtaking. And this, when they don't have enough money to complete routine repairs to roofs and boilers.

[MissMarple]

15. Way less than half of their employees are teachers. And they get fired?

OK....Maybe the city should take over the schools. Could it be any worse? Failing districts in the states can be taken over by the state because they are ultimately responsible through their constitutions for education. Now who is ultimately responsible for the DC district?