Dead Money in DC

In professional football, with its hard salary cap, applying a pro-rated portion of a released player’s salary to the annual cap is called “dead money.” It looks like something similar will soon happen in Washington, DC’s schools, where Chancellor Michelle Rhee “will pay nearly $5.4 million in full-time salaries to 68 teachers and staff who won’t work full-time jobs this year,” reports the Examiner. Rather than lay off younger teachers, as the city’s bargaining contract calls for, Rhee is sidelining more senior teachers who don’t fit into her reform plans and eating the salaries.