The weeks-long impasse over the D.C. teachers contract has been broken, sources told News4.
Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee found money in the city budget to cover the 20 percent raises and other provisions without depending on private foundation money as they originally planned.
Rhee is expected to deliver the contract to D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, who will determine if the contract can go forward to a vote by the 4,000 teachers.
A vote on the contract by union members was delayed because of questions about the money that would finance it. Rhee claimed a $34 million budget surplus could go to the contract -- raising the ire of those still upset by teacher layoffs in the fall -- but Gandhi denied the surplus existed.
Last month, Gandhi said there was a $28 million gap in funding for the contract during the current fiscal year and a $135.6 million shortfall through 2013. He also was concerned about using millions in private funding because of conditions attached to it.
