History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
What Rhee wrought
- 12-16-2010
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Blog by Valerie Strauss/Washington Post
Anyone who thinks that Michelle Rhee was a whiz as chancellor of D.C. public schools and should be heading a national "reform" movement ought to read about a high school she attempted to “transform” in the nation’s capital. Rhee recently announced that she is heading a new organization, created around her celebrity, called Students First, that is aiming to raise $1 billion to effectively lobby against teachers unions and in support of business-driven reforms. She has become the rock star of the education world, with an accompanying myth that she came into the nation’s capital with a broom -- her imagery, not mine; she clutched one in a 2008 Time magazine cover picture -- and with fierce determination removed bad teachers and closed or fixed awful schools with a mighty sweep. The truth of her tenure is less compelling. In fact, some parts are disturbing. The tale that my colleague Bill Turque wrote about Dunbar Senior High School reveals the bad assumptions and decisions Rhee made in trying to transform a long-troubled school, and, further, exposes some of the mindlessness driving school reformers today across the country. (more…)
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