From the ultra left-wing Washington Post. (H/T Wes Widner)

Excerpt:

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced Friday that she has fired 241 teachers, including 165 who received poor appraisals under a new evaluation system that for the first time holds some educators accountable for students’ standardized test scores.

[…]Dismissals for performance are exceedingly rare in D.C. schools — and in school systems nationwide. Friday’s firings mark the beginning of Rhee’s bid to make student achievement a high-stakes proposition for teachers, establishing job loss as a possible consequence of poor classroom results.

The Washington Teachers’ Union said Friday that it will contest the terminations.

[…]Although the teachers dismissed for poor performance represent only about 4 percent of the city’s 4,000-member corps, Rhee also announced Friday that 737 other instructors were rated “minimally effective.” Under IMPACT, they have one year to improve their performance or face dismissal. Rhee declined to speculate on how many might be sacked next year. But she said that over the next two years, “a not-insignificant number of folks will be moved out of the system for poor performance.”

[…]…few tenured educators have faced dismissal for poor performance. Rhee said that according to her staff’s research, no teachers were fired for lack of effectiveness in 2006, the year before she was named chancellor.

[…]The great majority of teachers routinely received evaluations showing that they met or exceeded expectations. At the same time, the District compiled one of the weakest academic records of any urban school system in the United States.

I wrote about Michelle Rhee before here. You need to understand that teacher unions are the backbone of the Democrat party. Every vote for a Democrat politician is a vote against quality education for children.

Must-see videos on education policy

• MUST-SEE: John Stossel’s documentary about public schools and school choice
• MUST-SEE: Cato Institute lady explains why competition is better than monopoly

Related posts

• Do public school teachers want to give children a quality education?
• Sex-education video prompts mother to transfer out 7-year old daughter
• 10% of US students are subject to sexual misconduct by school staff
• How Obama’s new 2011 budget fails the poorest children in two ways
• How teacher unions lobby government to block educational reform
• What helps kids to learn? Parents, teacher unions or education bureaucrats?
• New study reveals how school choice benefits the poorest students
• Eleven schools teaching children to praise and worship Obama
• Do teacher unions care about providing high quality education?
• Does the education system discriminate against boys?
• NEA lawyer explains the real goals of teacher unions: money and power
• Are teacher unions interested in helping your children to succeed in life?
• Economist Walter Williams evaluates whether teachers are earning their huge salaries
• How teacher’s unions make war on charter schools