Jersey Jazzman read Hari Sevugan’s comment on the blog last night and wondered if anyone still believes that StudentsFirst is bipartisan. JJ doesn’t think that any Democrat could sign on to Rhee’s anti-teacher, anti-union agenda.
Would a bipartisan group pump money into Republican campaigns? Would a bipartisan group pump $500,000 into the anti-union campaign in Michigan?
Not likely.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To paraphrase an old adage: If it walks like a Republican, talks like a Republican, acts like a Republican, and takes money from a Republican, it is a Republican.
But she is paired up with the Democratic Sec. of Education…just last year in Washington Post:
Posted at 11:44 PM ET, 01/17/2012
Duncan, Rhee starring at our-hearts-belong-to-data summit
By Valerie Strauss
The king and queen of data-driven education reform — Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee — are starring at the National Data Summit that starts on Wednesday in the nation’s capital.
Amassing and using data to assess schools and principals and students and teachers and school districts and states is, of course, at the heart of the education accountability movement championed by Duncan and Rhee.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/duncan-rhee-starring-at-our-hearts-belong-to-data-summit/2012/01/11/gIQA7bh46P_blog.html
Is the truth finally catching up with Michelle Rhee?
from the Washington Post
‘Frontline’ raises questions about test-score tampering under Rhee
Student standardized-test scores at an award-winning D.C. school dropped dramatically in 2011 after the principal tightened security out of concern about possible cheating, according to a new “Frontline” television documentary to be broadcast Tuesday.
The hour-long program raises questions about whether District officials have adequately investigated persistent suspicions that public school employees may have tampered with tests during the tenure of former schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/documentary-examines-michelle-rhees-legacy-in-dc/2013/01/04/ae86e8a6-55f7-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html
from PBS
The Education of Michelle Rhee
FRONTLINE examines the legacy of one of America’s most admired & reviled school reformers.
FRONTLINE correspondent John Merrow was granted unprecedented access to Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the Washington, DC public schools as she attempted to fix a broken school system.
Watch the trailer:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/education-of-michelle-rhee/
Philaken…thank you for posting. I convinced myself not to watch this because I can’t watch another puff piece on this pariah. However, after reading the article and watching the trailer it doesn’t look like an infomercial for the Rheeject.
This excerpt is revealing..maybe some are jumping the SF ship because the truth will finally be revealed:
Investigators found some test-security problems at Noyes but no evidence of answer-sheeting tampering. Based on those findings, they decided not to examine other schools.
But Cothorne, the former principal who alleges that she saw staff members after hours with erasers and test booklets, said investigators never interviewed her.
“My speculation: They didn’t want to hear what I had to say,” she told “Frontline.”
The inspector general’s office declined “Frontline’s” request for an interview about its investigation, saying the report speaks for itself. The office also declined The Post’s request for comment Friday.
Cothorne told “Frontline” that she tightened test security. On the end-of-the-year test, math and reading scores dropped more than 25 percentage points from the year before. The principal left Noyes at the end of that school year and opened a cupcake shop in Ellicott City.
Apparently John Merrow’s production company “Learning Matters” is funded by the Gates Foundation…see image:
If ALEC can pretend to be non-partisan, I suppose anyone can pretend anything they want.
So does “anti-teacher, anti-union” = Republican? Is Rahm Emanuel a Republican?
The sad fact is that enough Democrats have signed on to the teacher-bashing, anti-union, education “reform” spiel that Rhee can indeed claim to be “bipartisan” with more than a little credibility.
Your are right. Most notably Arne Duncan, President Obama’s SOE.
Daley did the same thing before Rahm. He demonstrated union-busting in a variety of ways, including bringing in Walmart despite a lot of objections precisely because they’re non-union.
Chicago has long been a union city, but both Obama and Duncan were Chicago residents and political figures under Daley’s reign, and of course, Rahm is a native Chicago suburbanite who Obama made his chief of staff. So one might even say that Chicago is the seat of Democratic turn-coats. They never admit to it though, however, their actions speak for themselves.
Here in Illinois, it’s Bizarro World: Democrats ARE Republicans. Right now Illinois teachers are fighting to maintain their pensions, which are being threatened by…Democrats, who are majority in BOTH House & Senate.
Thank you. It needs to be said. This Republican-Democratic divide is practically a myth, and we’d be well-advised to not fall prey to it.
Move the center to the left — it’s moved so far to the right, Obama looks like a Reaganite in many ways.
In the current political environment, I am skeptical that any bipartisan group exists. There may be individuals who are trying to initiate conversations across the political spectrum which will begin to seek solutions for the issues you are highlighting, but most groups seem to be reciting partisan talking points.
I’m not sure a partisan (political party) tag can really be attached. It certainly has a “Republican feel”, being so privately/quietly driven with some of the classic seasonings (choice, competition, market…), but I don’t see leading Democrats, President Obama included, willing to take a more educationally sound approach towards improving student outcomes.
I think about the scene from “Oh Brother, Where art Thou” where Big Dan Teague (John Goodman) leads the two hapless adventurers to an out of sight location, where no one can see what he’s up to, and beats the two senseless with a big stick and robs them.
“It’s all about the money”, he says.
Exactly, DMax. The literary character I thought about was Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello. Iago convinces Othello he’s his loyal servant yet uses his position as a trusted confidant to destroy Othello’s life with innuendo and lies.
Rhee and StudentsFirst have positioned themselves to play with both parties in local and national elections. Don’t forget this picture of the happy couple and VeeP at a fund raiser:
And then there’s the fraudulent FRONT GROUPS Students First set up in Conn exposed here:
http://jonathanpelto.com/tag/michelle-rhee/
and here:
https://dianeravitch.net/2012/12/05/rhees-husband-fined-for-ethics-violation/
I look for Hari to pop up somewhere in the Democratic Party political establishment. This movement was aptly named GERM by Pasi Sahlberg. The diseases they cause don’t go away but morph into more deadly forms.
I used your first pic link in a tweet just now, asking for “reply with your caption”. Hope you don’t mind. Great pic, but gives you that creepy feeling that you have no true friends, or even if you do, Satan has their soft vulnerable parts in his grip.
Well put. The idea there’s this Republican-Democratic divide helps further prevent any true resistance to reform and austerity from building.
Beware when anyone tells you that they are part of a ‘community of reformers’.
As long as Duncan and the DNC continue to sing her praises, nothing will change. But let’s also look at DFER, They are not any better. Rhee became a Rheepublican when she supported Conservatives who wanted to destroy public ed and separated it from their social agenda. Rhee wants power, and if that means women losing their right to choose, or Gays their right to marry, so be it.
If my memory is correct, I believe Diane has an entire chapter dedicated to Ms.
Rhee. I wish we could get a sneak peek….maybe just maybe this is the beginning of the end for this political shyster, liar, non-educator and vile opportunist.
I have asked Frontline to investigate corporate sponsored education “reform” frequently, for what seems like ages. Rhee would be a good place to start, partly because she’s so characteristic of the two-faced nature of people in the “reform” movement, but also because John Merrow reported on her previously.
I so hope this is just the beginning and that they follow the money, trailing Democrats and Republicans alike to corporate profiteers and ALEC. .
Folks, I have an update here:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/01/rhee-cant-play-both-sides-anymore.html
Look, I understand that there are plenty of Democrats that agree with SF’s Rhee-forms. But their MONEY is going to Republicans. Again:
“But 90 of the 105 candidates backed by StudentsFirst were Republicans, including Tea Party enthusiasts and staunch abortion opponents.”
SF is a Republican money funnel; Rhee can no longer pretend otherwise.
I see what you’re saying. Still, I worry about anybody thinking that the Democratic party supports healthy ed policy, and don’t see the Democrats as a healthy alternative.
To me, they are even worse. I expect it from Republicans. I was working in the Chicago Public Schools during Obama’s first election. As soon as he picked Duncan, I knew that he was a complete sellout and fraud. He hasn’t done anything to change my mind.
AND SF bribe allocations aside, if the Dems are going to be the sniveling but silent bottom feeders instead of soldiers for our interests…
As a technical matter, supporting Republican causes is not inconsistent with “bi-partisanship,” since the Republican party is one of the two parties referenced by the term. I’ll go out on a limb here, but I don’t think most people here have a problem with Michelle Rhee because she’s not bipartisan. I think they have a problem with her because she is.
Yes, because she is..
A liar
A fraud
A TFA dropout
A manipulator
A shyster
An opportunist
A self aborbed power hungry political hack
It is all about Michelle making a name herself.
Edushyster and Michelle Rhee’s Hero problem:
That the ranks of teachers-turned-policy-critics are swelling so quickly is due in no small part to Michelle Rhee herself. From California to Connecticut teachers feel utterly besieged by the likes of Rhee and the education reform movement of which she is the nominal head. The interchangeable organizations, bankrolled by deep-pocketed backers, proclaim themselves to be for students, children, excellence and achievement. Connecticut, already home to no fewer than five of these groups, including Rhee’s own StudentsFirst, welcomed yet another just this week: Educators4Excellence.
Michelle Rhee isn’t going anywhere. There is too much money behind her and her movement now, and too much money still to be made. But next to the heroism of the Newtown teachers, Rhee and her ilk seem smaller, diminished. By week’s end Rhee had been forced to release another statement, this one about StudentsFirst’s position on handguns in Michigan schools. Rhee had tried to remain neutral on the issue, but the vast majority of legislators endorsed by StudentsFirst in November voted in favor of allowing concealed weapons into schools. The legislators Rhee backed were also overwhelmingly in favor of Michigan’s new right to work law intended to weaken the power of the state’s unionized workers, including teachers.
Not all workers will be affected, by the way. The new law contains a hero provision that exempts police and firefighters.
http://edushyster.com/?p=1602
I captured the Rheeject statement after Newtown as I thought she would surely backtrack and change it. She couldn’t even mention the six MURDERED teachers. She refers to children as assets and then ends with a self serving statement about her mission. When in doubt, it is always about her.
Does this woman have a heart? Pity her children. Her words (children are assets):
Our children are our most valuable assets, and we lost too many of them.
But events like these also strengthen our resolve to do exactly that — improve schools for children and thereby improve entire communities.
Thankfully her children don’t reside with her or “Sweet 16”. I feel for them. With a Mom like that, life is going to be rough for them.
Well…I’m glad some have wised up and changed course. But ole George Parker with that Washington Teachers Union photo (paid for by WTU members?) is still there.