Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – The union that represents teachers at D.C. Public Schools is demanding justice for a former teacher who has not gotten back pay, even though an arbitrator ruled last summer that the school system owes it to him.
Jeff Canady was fired after the 2008-09 school year because he objected to what former chancellor Michelle Rhee was doing according to the president of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten. She added he was among hundreds of teachers who lost their jobs because of what the union calls Rhee’s “teacher replacement” strategy.
“There was never a time when any one person questioned my teaching,” Canady told reporters Monday. He said superintendents came through his classroom and talked about how well the children in his class did, and DCPS also paid for one of his master’s degrees.
Canady filed a grievance, and after nine years of arbitration an arbitrator ruled he was fired illegally, and the school system needed to reinstate him and give him nine years of back pay – which amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars – within 60 days. Canady – who taught in the school system for 18 years – was earning $80,000 a year at the time of his termination.
“This is a complete injustice that revives what happened during the Rhee era,” said Weingarten adding that DCPS is challenging the back pay award.
Canady said because the case was in arbitration for so many years, he wasn’t able to find another teaching job and eventually ran out of savings and wound up homeless.
“Why does arbitration take 10 years in the District of Columbia? The District of Columbia was simply waiting for teachers to die or lose hope,” Canady said.
DCPS has reinstated Canady. He said he is on administrative leave with pay but has only received one paycheck, which was sent to an account he closed years ago.
Weingarten said he was only reinstated after the union told school leaders it had scheduled a press conference to talk about the case.
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