Anger Over Layoffs Vented in 18-Hour Hearing

This article captures the intensity of feelings -- an 18 HOUR City Council meeting!  Speaking of taking risks, kudos to my friend Camilo Acosta!!!

When D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray called his hearing on teacher layoffs to order shortly after 10 a.m. Friday, the first of more than 100 witnesses began their testimony with "Good morning."

Then "Good afternoon" and "Good evening."

And "Good morning." Again.

By the time Gray adjourned at 4:08 a.m. Saturday, after 18 hours of comment from parents, students, community activists, labor leaders and more than 40 teachers -- nearly all of it scathingly critical of the firings -- it was generally agreed that some sort of record had been set. Whether it was in the realm of democracy or lunacy depended on who you asked.

…The fault lines of race and class, always present in debates about education in the District, were in sharp relief. Shortly before 1 a.m., one of the few Rhee supporters to show up, a young tech entrepreneur named Camilo B. Acosta, went to the microphone. "Firing ineffective teachers should be cause for celebration, not concern," he said, as the council chamber erupted.

A former special education teacher, Sharon Baldwin, at the other end of the witness table, had to be held in her seat by colleagues as she defended her worth. She denounced the young Teach for America graduates "infiltrating" the school system because of Rhee. She said they "have no idea how to educate a black child."

-------------------------

Anger Over Layoffs Vented in 18-Hour Hearing

By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 18, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/17/AR2009101701900.html

When D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray called his hearing on teacher layoffs to order shortly after 10 a.m. Friday, the first of more than 100 witnesses began their testimony with "Good morning."