D.C. teachers go back to court

The Washington Teachers' Union has asked a D.C. a Superior Court judge to re-open its lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the teacher layoffs Chancellor Michelle Rhee ordered last October because of what she described as a budget crunch.

Union president George Parker and American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said Friday that the tangle of charge and counter-charge this past week involving Rhee's claims of a $34 million surplus in the school system budget -- which she intended to use to fund the new proposed teachers contract -- make it imperative that the matter return to court. Judge Judith Bartnoff rejected union claims last fall that the budget crisis was fabricated by Rhee.

The union electronically filed motions to re-open the case late Thursday evening.