D.C. Chancellor Gains Authority to Fire Central-Office Employees

Washington

Michelle A. Rhee, the chancellor of the public school system in the nation’s capital, soon will have the authority to fire employees in the central office, a step that the schools chief has said is central to her plans for improving the troubled district.

The District of Columbia Council approved a measure last month to reclassify nearly 500 central-office workers whom Ms. Rhee will be able to fire without cause. The panel was expected to give the measure its final...