D.C. Council Accuses Schools Chief Michelle Rhee of Illegally Firing Teachers

A day-long oversight hearing erupted into open warfare between the D.C. Council and public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, whom the council accused of ignoring its recommendations on how to cut the 2010 budget, the Washington Post reported Friday. Instead of scrapping a 2010 summer school program, Rhee opted to fire 266 teachers to help close an impending budget shortfall, a move she did not reveal until the Thursday hearing. Her opponents, which include teachers' unions and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, characterized her actions as an illegal attempt to purge older teachers.

Conflict between Rhee and unions has been brewing for months, inspiring vociferous street protests and earning her the scorn of the many on the council. Thursday's revelation broke open the tension between Rhee and Gray, as the two argued heatedly over the propriety of her budget decisions.

"I'm talking about the law," Gray said of Rhee's decision to fire the teachers, a move she made without informing the council or submitting a "reprogramming" request. "Why bother to have a legislative body if the people in the executive branch do whatever they choose because they don't like the decision of the legislative body?" Others questioned Gray's insistence that Rhee's action was illegal, since the reprogramming request was for next year's budget and would not need to be submitted for some time.

Rhee defended herself on grounds that the summer program she had been ordered to cut is crucial to helping struggling students stay on the path to graduation, and that the D.C. attorney general and the school system's general counsel had both said she was acting within the law. "Change is hard," she said. "Some of the decisions we are making are going to cause some opposition and push-back. We can't shy away from those decisions because we don't want to hear the noise." She added that she regretted having to fire teachers, but "difficult decisions" cannot make everyone happy.

Post-game analysis in the D.C. blogosphere marveled at the volatile tone of the meeting, but most gave Rhee credit for "holding her own" against the onslaught of opposition. "[The] Council did not establish beyond a doubt that this was done to fire bad teachers outside due process," the Washington City Paper's Mike Debonis wrote. "That's a win for Rhee." Writing in the Washington Examiner, Henry Jaffe called the meeting a sign of "growing pains" and expressed faith that Rhee's school reforms would survive the heated battle of the moment. "Rhee withstood the nastiness with aplomb and equanimity. She stays."