Veteran DC Teachers May Leave School System

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Hundreds of experienced DC teachers - tired of battling declining working conditions and School Chancellor Michelle Rhee's controversial initiatives - may soon be leaving in droves to take advantage of a proposed early-retirement program, Washington Teachers Union Local 6 President George Parker told V. Dion Haynes of the Washington Post last Thursday. "Parker and others said veteran teachers are particularly upset at Rhee over plans to close 23 under-enrolled schools and to overhaul 27 schools whose students have repeatedly failed to make federal academic targets," Haynes reports. "Many say that she has left teachers and parents largely out of the planning." Teachers also fear that the recent firing of 98 central office employees - the result of school reform legislation that took away the rights of central office workers (DC Council Strip Workers of Rights 1/10/08 UC) - might impact the union and the new contract and claim Rhee "has made disparaging remarks about veteran teachers," Haynes reports. Rhee is expected to release details of the early-retirement program in the coming weeks, following the conclusion of contract negotiations with Local 6. Click here to read the full story.