The latest report on Michelle Rhee shows her collecting millions of dollars from Wall Street financiers, assorted billionaires, and mega-foundations, all to redesign American education as she sees fit. www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-education-rheebre84e1oa-20120515,0,7834441.story
She has become a convenient vessel for the most rightwing governors who want to dismantle public education and reduce the teaching profession to at-will employees.
How can she sleep at night knowing that through her efforts, millions of teachers will live in fear and insecurity, knowing that their job depends on their students’ scores on lousy tests? That’s quite a legacy.
How can she sleep at night, knowing that she is promoting for-profit entrepreneurs whose first interest is profit, not children?
What exactly is her credibility for redesigning American education? She left behind a school district with the largest black-white achievement gap of any city tested by the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress. The average black-white achievement gap for big cities is about 30 points; in the District of Columbia, after Rhee’s tenure, it was over 60 points.
Her IMPACT program is discredited by the day. Scores went flat after it was imposed by Rhee.
We have not heard the last of the massive cheating scandal that occurred on her watch.
In my one encounter with her, last summer in a panel discussion on Martha’s Vineyard, I found that she just repeated the same stale slogans about teachers and poor performance. She seemed woefully unaware of current research. She looks for applause by bashing teachers. She has chosen to be a tool for those who want to privatize public education and undermine the teaching profession.
It’s really a shame. She could have used her moment in the sun to improve public education and to help those who work in our nation’s classrooms. She has chosen not to.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
it seems that Ms. Rhee sleeps great. She has achieved and continue to promote two main goals. First create a failing public education – evident from results coming from DC, and second to privatized the system, hand tax payer money to unaccountable tyrannies -corporation. This system is named ‘failure by design’. One has to create a failing system in order to justify a “reform” , usually euphemism to privatizing. The great goal behind it is to diminish democracy as much as possible. To eliminate citizens from “disturbing” business from accumulating wealth and power by demanding education, representation, healthcare, housing and livable wage. Not to mention real democracy is based on scrutiny and accountability, two terms that can be abstractions for the looting of the public money and abusing power. In that sense Rhee is indeed very successful and the damage she created along with plenty of money and stardom guarantee a good night sleep.
I recommend reading Noam Chomsky’s excellent piece ‘The Assault on Public Education’ that brings about a clear historical account on how education was and still is the main target for the for profit anti democracy movement.
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8305-the-assault-on-public-education
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Awful, however the larger blame lies with the public at large in my opinion. Unfortunately, Rhee and others like her with the same agenda have been successful in promoting school failure in the general population and by default, public apathy and hostility toward the schools and teachers. Ask a layman what he thinks about public education and he will often tout Rhee’s line. Wonder what the statistics are on that. Not always, but the squeakiest wheel gets greased and enough of the public is squeaking her talking points. The public schools need a massive public relations blitz to counter the charges that Rhee and others spew into the public debate about the schools. The NEA & AFT should step up to that challenge and spend some dues money on counter argument and public relations. Education, of course, is the key again. And that needs to happen in the general population.
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Michelle Rhee is like a Chatty Kathy doll. The billionaires pull her string and she says what they want her to say, over and over and over. She probably gets her sleep from checking her online banking account before she goes to bed!
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