Joy Resmovits at Huffington Post has a revealing story about how top staff at Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst have abandoned the ship.
No one went on the record to explain the exodus but it is hard to see how any Democrat could be part of a campaign to curtail collective bargaining rights and to diminish the rights and status of teachers. Unions and teachers are the base of the Democratic Party.
Think about how frequently Rhee has allied herself with rightwing governors like Mitch Daniels, John Kasich, Rick Scott, and Chris Christie. She has advocated for for-profit charter schools and for-profit universities. She supports vouchers. She was honored along with Governor Scott Walker by the far-right American Federation for Children, which is passionate for vouchers and privatization of public schools.
What part of her agenda is bipartisan?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Rhee is running a right-wing organization that is an adjunct to the Republican party:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/01/democrats-wake-up-about-rhee.html
Rhee could have continued doing good work at New Teacher Project and other initiatives. Quite sad that she put her unbridled ambition before what’s best for kids, and as we’re seeing now, what would have probably been best for her own career and image as well.
Rhee and “good work” don’t really go together. Her entire reputation is based on lies, exaggerations and spin. Wendy taught her well. Birds of a feather.
Rhee is as much a Democrat as I am a millionaire. as in all things related to “education reform,” follow the money.
the road to good intentions is paved with tax breaks. . .
The part that pays bribes in the form of campaign contributions to anyone who will tolerate or promote her agenda…
This quote:
But others were more blunt about the shift. “It gets tiresome to have to defend who we are,” said a senior SF officer, who declined to speak on the record.
Yes, that’s difficult when you are being used to lie to the pubic and you have to keep checking in with your billionaire buddies to get your talking points. Sucks to be a fraud.
Anyone have information on what this is about?
Melinda Gates Leaves Post Board After Report Criticizes Kaplan
“Melinda French Gates, philanthropist and wife of Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, has resigned from The Washington Post Co.’s board of directors.
Her resignation comes shortly after the release of a highly critical report, funded partly by her foundation, which likened for-profit colleges to subprime-mortgage lenders, targeting low-income and traditionally underrepresented students. The Washington Post Co. gets more than half of its revenues from its for-profit higher-education unit, Kaplan.
Neither Gates nor The Washington Post gave a reason for her departure.”
Yes, and perhaps Bill and Melinda are beginning to realize that privatization of public schools targets the poor also.
Diane – I’ve never posted a comment on your blog, but as one of the subjects mentioned in the article you have extrapolated from to make your point in this entry, I felt that I needed to on this occasion. I’m also writing this on my iphone, so please forgive me any wayward autocorrects.
You have often suggested, as you have here, that folks at StudentsFirst and more broadly the education reform community are working to privatize education and diminish teaching and teachers.
You afforded a story regarding my time at StudentsFirst enough validity to use it to criticize the organization. So, I hope you will afford my opinion based on that time the same credibility when I tell you this:
To suggest that folks working at StudentsFirst or in education reform are doing anything but working for the benefit of kids is plain wrong.
Everyone I worked with at StudentsFirst and in the education reform community was and is exclusively interested in improving the lives of children. They are not out to diminish teachers, but rather they recognize the importance of teachers in ensuring children have the best education possible. They are not out to destroy public education, but rather their fealty belongs to the public school students served by that system.
The thing is – I believe the same is true of teachers unions and many advocates, including you, who are opposed to education reform.
While I no longer work at StudentsFirst on a day-to-day basis, I will continue to work with them in other ways, as well as with other reformers, toward their goal of ensuring every child has access to high quality education.
In this post you ask, “What part of [Rhee’s] agenda is bipartisan?” There are many Democrats, including this one, who work toward reform because public schools are not currently serving every child – too often children of color and from poverty – as they should. These children are being denied a fundamental civil right. It is a core Democratic value to ensure that their civil rights are enforced. It is a core Democratic value to ensure poverty or socio-economic status is not a barrier to opportunity. It is a core Democratic value to ensure teachers are respected for the work they do.
There will be disagreements on how to enact those values at a policy level, on both sides and at times within the same side (see Newark teachers deal) but I hope we can abstain from characterizing motivations or values of those we disagree with. (Or in this case mischaracterizing them). I hope we can raise the level of the dialogue in this debate to reflect the importance of the subject matter both sides are trying to serve – our kids.
Hope this finds you otherwise well and doing better things on a Friday night that reading this.
– Hari
Hari, I would hardly characterize Michelle Rhee (or–for that matter–Jonah Edelman!) as someone who demonstrates respect for students OR teachers. Duct tape over students’ mouths? SB 7
in Illinois? PUHLEEZE! The founder of Students First absolutely coined the phrases “teacher bashing” and “union bashing.”
Hari,
Please read Gary Rubinstein’s excellent open letter to reformers. Gary is an experienced teacher and TFA person (He’s had many roles with TFA.) He has written letters to Johnston, Kopp, Rhee, to name a few, and he seems to know some of the reformers to varying degrees personally.
http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/
He is very thoughtful, analytical, and he obviously has critically reflected about education, and education reform. I don’t think he can be considered a status quo die hard unionist. He seems to have thought a lot about public education, and he’s had experience with TFA.
I have considered myself to be in the “no excuses reform” camp, but I am terribly afraid of where the reforms are headed now. Gary’s posts have basically matched my experiences working in the reform community. PLEASE consider reading it. I’d suggest all 8 letters he has written to reformers as well as the comments.
Hari,
One more thing…your statement here:
“I hope we can raise the level of the dialogue in this debate to reflect the importance of the subject matter both sides are trying to serve – our kids.”
Ummm….can you talk to Michelle about this…..raise the level?…..really you have got to be kidding.
She couldn’t even mention the six MURDERED teachers here in CT. Her lame statement once again was self serving.
You have your work cut out for you Hari and before you preach to all of us, you may want to start with your boss.
Hari,
When did you teach? What subjects and ages? In what setting? How long and why did you leave? How did you become associated with Michelle Rhee? Would you consider teaching in the classroom with K-12 students sometime soon? If not, why?
You could make a bigger difference in the trenches as opposed to repeating failed slogans.
Please consider coming back IF you were a great teacher, the kind every student deserves.
WHO ARE YOU??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Sevugan
Hari Sevugan is one such careerist. After making a name for himself in “rapid response” for the Democratic National Committee during the triumph of the 2010 midterm elections he is now moving on to bust unions with Michele Rhee in exchange for Corporate Cash. His previous expierience with education was teaching for a tremendous 2 years in the rough district of Upper Manhattan (cue Coolio) so he really “gets it.”
Democratic National Committee national spokesman Hari Sevugan will move to a top post at the former Washington, D.C., school chief Michelle Rhee’s new advocacy group, Students First, a move aimed at strengthening its hand in the complex and high-stakes politics of education policy.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/06/982571/-Hari-Sevugan-Sells-Out-Fmr-DNC-Spokesman-goes-Union-Busting#
Man, I’ve got to practice up on my snarkiness.
Saying that you are working for the civil rights of all children and doing it are two very different things. There is a serious lack of credible information supporting the reform agenda and a clear lack of respect for the teaching profession.
Let’s begin the abstinence by not characterizing teachers and unions as opposed to education reform.
Some of these staffers joined Rhee inspired to help improve
schools but realized the organization was about something
different. When there is smoke there is fire. There is a reason why
the experienced staffers left and only the inexperienced
stayed.
Also Duane and others read here:
Neither revelation was, in and of itself, groundbreaking. But they do cast additional doubts on Rhee’s efforts to accentuate the similarities between her politics and those of the unions she’s often fought. Several months ago, Rhee’s organization, StudentsFirst, announced that it was hiring former Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Hari Sevugan to serve in a communications role — implicitly as an ambassador to the progressive community.
“I don’t feel [the story of StudentsFirst] has been captured, not wholly,” Sevugan told The Huffington Post at the time. “If we’re able to tell the story of how we’ve been working with people on both sides of the aisle, how it’s a national movement made up of Democrats, Republicans and Independents, that are fighting to give students a voice, then I will have done my job.”
Despite the skepticism that accompanied Sevugan’s hiring, there were some early, encouraging results. Rhee formally came out in support of the DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship — either through military service or scholastic achievements — for the children of undocumented immigrants. Rhee also offered stronger indications that she did in fact support collective bargaining rights. And StudentsFirst, often accused of working solely with Republicans, recently hired a Democrat, Michigan State Rep. Tim Melton, to work on legislative issues.
Several months into the experiment, however, union officials and progressive advocates have been unconvinced, noting that for all of the rhetorical support for teachers and collective bargaining, Rhee often associates herself with efforts that run counter to those groups and interests.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/07/michelle-rhees-hari-sevugan-unions-labor-progressives_n_952659.html
Hari,
You state that their is an “education reform community” and that THEY are ” exclusively interested in improving the lives of children”.. There’s the rub.
The so called self proclaiming education reformers like to claim that they are interested in improving education, inferring that the thousand and thousands of teachers who are hard at work everyday don’t have this this goal.
To label yourselves as an “education reform community” is self serving nonsense. You reformers ever sit in a meeting with administrators and parents lobbying for special services for a child who needs it? Do those of you in your fictitious community actually work with children on a daily basis?
How is characterizing unions as opposing education reforms, actually improving the lives of children. Moves like that label your self proclaimed “education reform community” as segregated and closed to ideas that may not be quite like yours.
Here’s a homework assignment for you, ( that’s the teacher in me talking) do some research on Utopian minded communities that claimed to know the answer to their community’s needs. Let us know which ones are successful and are still around. Then add your self proclaimed, “education reform community’ to that list.
I invite you to join the universal community of teachers who work hard every day actually improving the lives of the children we teach every day. You’ll see how we collaborate, innovate, and continually explore ways to meet every one of our students’ needs. You’ll see how your education reform community’ imposes roadblocks and obstacles that attempt to detour us into your self proclaimed Utopian community, which hurts our students.
“Education reform community” – That’s the real problem
Hari – I don’t know you or the other prominent Democrats who joined and who are now leaving SF. I do know how discouraged I was when people like you joined up and now how relieved I am to see that you are leaving. I figured, like Diane and others familiar with Rhee’s work, that close association with her allowed you to personally witness her bad intentions and deeds.
So what could this defensive comment late on a Friday night mean? Possibly one of these two motives: That you believe what you’re saying and are protecting StudentsFirst or that you are protecting your own future prospects – it’s considered bad form to complain about your previous boss and some of your prospective employers might still be in the tank for Rhee.
I go with the latter. And I wouldn’t blame you, except that it’s too late for that. By the other comments here, you can see that too many people know Rhee for what she is. Perhaps you didn’t know that before going to work at SF. Perhaps you thought that all the criticism you heard came from “ineffective teachers” who cared more about their pensions than their students. Perhaps you were wowed by Rhee’s determination and the respect she’d garnered from so many of your esteemed Democratic colleagues.
Consider yourself to be lucky. Unlike the thousands of dedicated educators who have been maligned directly or indirectly by Rhee’s tactics, you can continue your career relatively unscathed by your brief association with her. You don’t have to give up your chosen profession and years of academic preparation because of your brush with the likes of Rhee and her education “reformers.”
I understand if you’re concerned that it would look bad to future employers to publicly diss your boss, but this weak, transparent defense you offer on Diane’s blog does nothing to help you. Exiting quietly is unfortunately not an option at this point. Too many people know her history now and public opinion has finally turned against her.
Don’t worry; you’ll land on your feet. So will Rhee. But it will take years for public education to recover from the damage she and her kind have done.
I wish you well in your future career and ask you to consider joining Diane somehow in trying to undo the current mess in public education. Like Diane, your experience with the reform movement will be invaluable.
“What part of her program is bipartisan?”
With all greatly due respect, Diane, let’s start with school closings, unfettered charter expansion, VAM, merit pay, attacks on tenure and seniority, high stakes testing, the Common Core…the list goes on and on.
If corporate education reform were merely part of the (increasingly deranged) Republican platform, we’d have far less to sorry about.
The problem is that so-called “friends” of teachers are happy to accept their votes and campaign contributions, while simultaneously spitting in their faces.
http://reclaimreform.com/2013/01/03/rally-at-illinois-capitol-representatives-abandon-teachers-and-all/
Illinois Democrats are pushing bills to cripple public union rights and to raid existing retiree pension funds at I type this. Corruption knows no party affiliation. The bills are nearly identical to Wisconsin Tea Party Gov. Scott Walker’s bills.
Interesting post, Diane. Thank you. What a conversation it has inspired.
Hari,
I would like to say to you … I am a teacher and I am a parent. I see this reform from both sides. I see depleted public schools and public programs. I see our public funds channeled to corporate charter schools. I see those schools failing the communities, and most importantly, the children. I am not the only one who sees it.
I read, just today, that Michelle Rhee praised my state, Florida, for their education reform. I disagree. Last year, in Florida, we reviewed the testing results. We found that less than 10% of all Florida schools are charter schools, yet they comprised 51% of the failing schools in Florida. In some counties, such as my own, the only failing school was, in fact, a charter school. The same is true for many counties in Florida, including the very large Broward county.
How can you convince us that charter schools are the answer?
I don’t believe it is possible to convince us, parents or teachers, that lobbying for charter schools is for the benefit of our children. Certainly not when we can drive down our streets and find a failing charter school, or closed charter school, with huge profits that disappeared in the wind. These are our streets … these are our children.
I do not believe it is possible to convince us. I applaud you for coming on this blog and trying … but these are our kids. We know they deserve better. This is the civil rights issue of our generation. The separation now is between the haves and have nots. Charter schools are furthering that division. I get it that the charter vision sounds good on paper, but the reality proves differently.
We need to refuel and revitalize our public schools … not punish and privatize. Remember, It is a core Democratic value to ensure free and equal public education for all. We learned once, not so long ago, that separate is not equal.
Never was … never will be.
Just my opinion as a parent and teacher. I am simply an ambassador for my child… no fancy title or IPhone for me.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.