SCHOOL DEFORMERS AT PLAY

DC school superintendent Michelle Rhee, a beloved icon of the liberal right, has just fired a couple hundred teachers. Here's some of the reaction:

Washington Post - A neat row of X's stretches down Eve McCarey's performance evaluation, showing that in category after category, she is someone who "exceeds expectations." With three years of experience as a special education teacher at Anacostia High School, she is hardworking, well-spoken and now unemployed.

McCarey seems to be the sort of teacher any hard-charging, reformist schools chancellor would want in a classroom. But despite layoff rules designed to help the system retain high-performing teachers, McCarey found herself out of a job Friday, along with other educators who range from idealistic Teach for America newcomers to a 32-year guidance counselor who is praised by parents as uncommonly effective.

"It just feels like my heart has been broken," said counselor Sheila Gill, 57, of McKinley Technology High School. "I have been trying to process all of what's going on. It happened so quickly and so suddenly."

McCarey, 28, a graduate of D.C. public schools who once helped develop curricula in Sudan, shared Gill's bruised feelings about the decision to lay her off and the manner in which her dismissal was executed. Nearly 400 school employees, including 229 teachers, lost their jobs.

"It was just the most disrespectful thing," McCarey said. Teachers were interrupted in the middle of class, escorted to the principal's office and read a script by their soon-to-be-ex-boss. The office of Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee told principals not to give laid-off employees specific reasons for their dismissals.

The reasons for McCarey's dismissal from Anacostia High couldn't have been based on much observation, she said. The administration was new this school year. Her contact with her new supervisors was limited to an interview over the summer, after which she was rehired, and a five-minute classroom visit the week before the layoff, she said.

Her June 1 job evaluation, a copy of which she shared with The Washington Post, gave her 28 of 30 possible points.

School officials have said the layoffs were necessary to close a $43.9 million gap in their 2010 budget caused by D.C. Council spending cuts in July. Critics, including council members, students and the teachers' union, have questioned the timing and underlying math of the layoffs. . .

Gill, the McKinley guidance counselor, had been with D.C. schools for 32 years and is a member of the executive committee of the Washington Teachers' Union. Her dismissal, and those of 14 other staff members at McKinley, helped spark a protest Monday that brought about 200 students to the school system's headquarters and the John A. Wilson Building. . .

"She's probably one of the most awesome and caring and loving counselors in this city," Lynne Holcomb said. She credited Gill with helping her son track down many of the 28 scholarships that together have helped pave the way to a full ride at N.C. State University this year.

Gill said that she had received excellent job evaluations in the past but that she hadn't had one in the two years since Principal David Pinder arrived at McKinley. Pinder and other principals contacted for this report declined to comment, citing personnel rules. . .

The layoffs also caught the young, although Rhee and the union disagree on the extent. Rhee said that, overall, less-experienced teachers were more likely to have been laid off. But she declined to release the numbers, saying they were being reviewed by District lawyers. The union has expressed concerns that veteran teachers might have been disproportionately affected by the cuts and filed suit Wednesday in D.C. Superior Court.

Washington Post letter - The Post asserted that the teachers terminated by D.C. Public Schools are those who "habitually can't control their classes, fail to plan lessons, are late for school, waste instructional time and, most troubling of all, have no expectations for their students Wrong. No one but Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee knows why these layoffs happened. My husband devoted his time, energy, eight years of teaching experience and 50-plus years of life experience to teaching.

What we do know is that Mr. Fenty and Ms. Rhee demonstrated to those children that it isn't enough to do your job well, be early and always prepared, and never give up on what you believe in. . . They took away my husband's job, and they broke his heart. Such is life. These cuts will not improve the quality of teaching; they will only exacerbate the dysfunction of the system. And what do those children have to believe in when they arrive in class now? - Karen Howard

Ann Loikow, DC Watch - I was appalled at not just Michelle Rhee's abrupt firing of hundreds of DCPS employees, but the outrageous manner in which it was conducted. To send police officers in to escort them out as if they were criminals, instead of giving employees appropriate notice and time to clean out their offices or desks and say good-by to coworkers and prepare their classes for their departure is beyond the pale. Ms. Rhee obviously does not care about other human beings and was never taught how to show the most minimum modicum of courtesy and consideration for other people. If this is the way she was raised, I would not want her teaching or overseeing the teaching of our children. It is doubly outrageous that it is our government and our governmental officials whom we are paying that operate in this manner.

Gary Imhoff, DC Watch - In order to fire teachers and other school system workers without hindrance, Fenty and Rhee have demonized teachers and are lying about the cause of the firings. The firings were not necessitated by cuts in the school budget made by the city council. In fact, DCPS's budget this year was fifteen million dollars more than last year's, for fewer students, and DCPS has shed three major areas of expense over the past few years. No, the necessity of the firings was caused by Rhee herself, when she hired hundreds of new teachers that she knew she wouldn't need. That enabled her to issue a reduction in force order and to fire hundreds of teachers and other school employees who were not part of her clique and loyal to her, and whom she wanted to get rid of without the inconvenience of obeying the union agreement and city laws regulating firing decisions. . . Fenty and Rhee are breaking the unions and breaking the will of the city council. They are doing this by persuading some gullible portion of the public that they actually have a good government motivation.