Undeterred by the release of John Merrow’s report of widespread cheating on her watch, Michelle Rhee traveled to South Carolina to attack teachers. She said they were defenders of the status quo. She said they were protecting their self-interest. She said they ride a “gravy train.”
The average teacher’s salary in SC is $46,306.67.
Rhee is paid $50,000 for lecturing and taking questions for an hour.
Who is on a gravy train?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reposting…could this pariah get any more vile?
She is hell bent on destroying a profession she never mastered herself.
The new and improved Time cover.
I wonder if this news organization will conduct a follow up report/investigation:
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That is hilarious. The revised edition appears to be closer to the truth. Not only did she know it, but she created the problem with her “merit Pay” scheme. If ever the was evidence that merit pay is a bad idea, this is it.
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The standardized testing fetish and its consequences have been going on for a dozen years. Wouldn’t that actually be the status quo?
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Yes, turn their own rhetoric against them.
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I would suggest that Rhee’s speeches be used as texts to study under the CCSS, but I understand that fiction is to be reduced.
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School districts, quit buttering her (Rhee’s) bread. Don’t hire her to consult your teachers. What does she know about teaching?
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Akiser, Rhee is never hired by districts and never speaks to educators, as far as I can tell. She is hired to speak to business groups, rightwing think tanks, and charter organizations. She speaks frequently to far-right governors and legislatures.
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She is the Sarah Palin of education. What an idiot. She has obviously never been a teacher. I am not even sure if she is qualified to BE a teacher.
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I worked under Rhee in Washington, DC. She was a teacher in Teach-for America and admitted that she wasn’t good at it. I was 50/50 on Rhee as she did get us textbooks, heat and A/C as well as other things teachers in other districts take for granted! However, when the power went to her head, she then attacked and became out of control, hence she is no longer there. Her last year, she created a hostile environment with the threat of being fired and a evaluation system that I don’t think she even understood! I think we all know there are teachers who need to go, but she attacked all of us!
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Looking forward to Rhee asking for more gravy on her prison meatloaf
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If you look at the states with far right governors and legislators, who are gerrymandering districts in their favor while they can, you will see that they are locking in their contol for 10 years or more. They tend to be right to work or planning to become right to work states. They sell propaganda to those who are waiting to hear specific visions of what America “should be” and “was”. It is like “kudzu” … a creeping, smothering, live taking drain on society. Remember when we brought kudzu to the U.S. Seemed pretty and like a good idea … but the truth was soon recognized.
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Rhee’s vindictive diatribes against all teachers is without a doubt the most deplorable attacks upon any profession, including used car salesmen! I wonder what is the genesis of her KKK type, ridiculous “lectures,” People like Gates are just as driven to destroy public education, but are milder on character assassination upon the dedicated teachers who face a daily increasingly hostile environment. Her bile represents two, well known psychological pathologies; projection and unrelenting attacks that could be indicative of a personality disorder (taping kids mouths shut, deriving a draconian high when firing and destroying teachers’ careers, also are signposts of a personality problem). Her ilk are now multiplying like weeds in spring, in systems across the nation. WHO, no matter how much they yearn to join the tattered ranks of educators, would pursue such a condemned, oppressed and low paying career? That profile may hold the key to reviving our profession. MANY systems are going to South/Central America to recruit faculty. When our classrooms grow to the size of university lecture halls, and faculty are just as English-challenged as many of my profs were at Ohio State, maybe the public will wake up to the smoking ruin of public education that they were complicit in making a reality. But it may be like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The would be, university trained teachers may have gone to other professions where the pay and esteem are happier climes, that won’t entail spending their pay on meds to cope with the dungeon like atmosphere of far too many teachers in today’s schools. The money grubbing jackals of corporate America are sowing the wind and one can only hope, they reap the whirlwind of their bogus claims to raising academic standards in this corporate run country.
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Just an aside… but as a teacher, I can attest to the fact that a NUMBER of faculty at our school is on medication for depression/anxiety. Like the thought police, we’re supposed to “keep a positive attitude,” and some of the admin want to squash any kind of “ungood discussions,” and viola! The result… people who sit on their frustrations (internalize), and then need meds to cope. You hit that one on the head Mary!
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Thank you for your kind remarks. I have suffered from a terribly abusive administrator that left my career, a smoking ruin, and my health on the edge of a stroke and/or heart attack. The ordeal has given me PTSD, exreme anxiety and a deep depression. I have filed three EEOC charges; one of age discrimination and two of retaliation. Three years after the fact, I am slowly recovering, but will never enter a classroom again. I feel my saga is rather the poster teacher for the jackals that are running a muck, destroying
everything in our once, productive, joyful profession. Its an American tragedy whose
legacy is yet to be fully seen. I share you and your peer teachers the oppressive career
teaching has sunk to, and seemingly few care. I feel we must unit to fight the corporate raiders who will suck all the money they can, by charters, TFA or any other Trojan Horse
they can conjure up to fleece the public and reduce our country to near illiteracy. I never could have imagined the world we live in.
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Dickvelner, I’m not sure how that begs the question what Diane gets paid. She’s not the one asserting teachers are riding a gravy train by making a modest salary all the while raking in dough for speaking about something she knows next to nothing about–how to improve public education.
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At the age of 73 I am still very concerned about the future of public education. This week I will be in Denver for the National Math Teachers convention. With over 7,000 in attendance there will be attendees who will be the cry-babies like Diane, those who want to preach a gospel of poor-me, poor-me. I will prefer to caucus with those wanting change, revolutionary change that will give students the opportunity they deserve.
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You are nothing but puff and steam…you do not even teach children. You are here to promote yourself plain and simple. It is all about YOU. Be gone DICK!
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I have a few rules on this blog.
One, no cursing, at least not by me, hopefully not by commenters either.
Two, civility. I delete comments that are blatantly offensive. Like those that claimed the Newtown massacre was a hoax.
Three, you may not insult me. You can disagree with me, you can say I’m wrong, but no personal insults.
That is why I deleted a comment in this thread that said someone pays me to express my views. No one pays me to express my views. Period.
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What office are you running for?
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King of the throne.
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Dufresne, Linda & ME: I appreciate your efforts but I humbly suggest that they may be better employed in response to other posters on this blog.
As Dufresne and Diane indicate, the real point is that Michelle Rhee makes more in an hour as a celebrity/pseudo-education expert than genuine experts toiling on the front lines of education in South Carolina make [on average] in a year. That discussion has many dimensions, including [and from my POV, especially] a moral one.
There is a time and a place and a way to deal with almost everything. Here we talk about a “better education for all.” I thank all of you for your contributions [please excuse, but especially Linda].
As for dealing with personal demons: I am sure that the edubullies have some software that will help work out and relieve—in twenty-first century innovaty fashion at a Klein-approved pace and level of ease or difficulty—all the inner torments that besiege and beset the poster in question. Or they should. They seem to have software for everything else having to do with education…
🙂
Only a suggestion. I’ll be perfectly comfortable if you chose to ignore.
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I will not ignore you KTA, but I will now channel my spring break anger against ignorant, self-serving, posters towards a better use of my time: walk the dog, read a brand new book, rake out the flower beds and prepare dinner.
My book is: Magical Journey, An apprenticeship in contentment by Katrian Kenison who I will meet on Friday, at the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington, CT.
Sounds like I need this advice…I am sure you agree KTA.
Thanks for refocusing my energies. Happy spring!
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DickVelner, I am sometimes paid to speak by organizations that always pay speakers. I don’t tailor my views to get paid. My views are what they are. I support public education. I support teachers. I believe that public education is a foundation stone of our democracy. I don’t believe that tests make children smarter or that more testing will close gaps. I believe that teachers change lives, one at a time. i believe our society is failing its neediest citizens and that society gets reformed by public policy, not by teachers. I believe in the overwhelming evidence that teachers should not be judged by test scores. If you continue to make insulting remarks, I will delete them.
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Linda,
The porcelain throne??
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Yes, the hopper, crapper, etc….you got it!
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Dick, I’m curious. Can you tell me what revolutionary change I can start implementing in my classroom right now? I’ve been reading research and changing my methods and curriculum every semester for 19 years now, and I work about 14 hours a day, but obviously I still have a lot to learn and a lot more work to do, ’cause I’m not reaching all of ’em.
For example, I have a bunch of kids who come to school hungry almost every day. I have one who comes to school really tired because he only gets to sleep on the couch on the weekends, when his stepbrother is with his other family. I have one who lives in his uncle’s car because his stepdad kicked him out for “acting gay.” I have one who is being abused by mom’s boyfriend while she is working her second job to make ends meet. I have a couple who are responsible for caring for their younger siblings pretty much full-time because Mom is a meth freak and Dad is in prison. These kids just don’t seem to care much about succeeding in chemistry, for some reason.
Whoa! Sorry. I was starting to sound kind of cry-babyish there. But I’m not a cry-baby like Diane. I promise. I’m ready to learn from you, Dick. Just tell me what revolutionary change I can implement in my classroom so the kids I’m talking about will start to care about learning stoichiometry, cause that’s what’s on the plan for next week. I don’t care what it is, Dick, I’m ready to do it. Just tell me what to do, man, and I’m there.
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I’ll give her credit, Rhee is the head gravy train hobo, she definitely has expertise in that area.
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If it has not yet been crystal clear –– and I think it has –– Michelle Rhee’s comments in South Carolina make it perfectly clear that she has absolutely no shame.
Again, Rhee siad that public education in the United States was “wholly unaccountable,” and “dysfunctional.” If anything, those descriptors are best used to define her tenure as Chancellor of the DC schools.
As John Merrow noted, the DC schools are worse by virtually every measure since Rhee and Kaya Henderson, her former top deputy and now Chancellor, put in place their corporate-style “reform” efforts.
Michelle Rhee is what she is…a self-absorbed, petulant, shameless, prevaricating, poor excuse for a human being.
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democracy: your remarks provoked a rather sobering, if not frightening, thought. If she can so easily humiliate her own children in public [remember the “they suck at soccer” remark?], she seems perfectly capable of reading the following observation by Mark Twain —“Man is the only animal that blushes — or needs to”— and rheemain in a state of perpetual perplexity regarding its meaning or applicability or wisdom.
Or imagine how quickly Michelle “No Regrets” Rhee would have dismissed Socrates millenia-famous remark “The unexamined life is not worth living” with the rollicking riposte that “He sucks at philosophy but for $50,000 for an hour’s worth of my time I will tell you everything you need to know.”
Self-reflection doesn’t come easy to the self-absorbed. Just ask Narcissus…although I don’t think the ex-Chancellor is coming back as anything even remotely appealing as a flower.
Just my dos centavitos worth.
🙂
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I just don’t get it! This thread was started by using Michelle Rhee as a whipping post. Talk about billionaires, poor underpaid teachers, teachers on medication, etc. A number of $46,306 was quoted as a salary in SC. Get your numbers right! In Minneapolis where I have taught in every high school, the FTE number for the District is $93,000 for a 182 days of work. I would consider this a gravy train.
By copy to Diane, I apologize if you took my remarks in a negative way. I cannot control your feelings nor can I influence your readership and how they feel. With 14 grandchildren and experience in many fields I am convinced that the outcomes from public education are disastrous. As a teacher I can say to the rest of the teachers, stop complaining and get to work!
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You have no idea how much teachers who post here make or how many days they work. Count the number of I’s in your statement above and what does it matter how many grandchildren you have.
The outcomes are NOT disastrous and from a simple google search it appears you have been censored before today and you yourself admit to being “over-bearing”.
Look in the mirror Dick, the problem may be you. Take your self-serving pompous message somewhere else….I learn nothing from your posts except Dick loves Dick.
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls/messages/topic/6q0rydH4pk89JWexItaGSn
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Linda: I was often requested by teachers because they felt I worked hard at adapting to individual teaching styles and classroom management. I also had the pleasure of having several teachers tell me that they felt I had their back when the going got tough.
May I have you back on this one? You know, just to cheer you up…
With profuse apologies to the composers of a memorable song from the wonderful musical WEST SIDE STORY:
I feel petty,
Oh so petty,
I feel so petty and pompous and right!
That I pity
Any narcissist who isn’t me tonight! [self-longing gazes into the mirror]
I stop here out of deference to the original song. But just where oh where does this satirical shoe fit?
“Laughter is poison to the pompous.”
🙂
And I am not the only one who has your back; note daveeckstrom’s response below.
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Hey Dick! I have some friends who teach in Minneapolis and when I read your number, I thought, “Why aren’t they buying dinner every time we get together? They make twice as much as me!”
Then I thought maybe I should double-check, you know, just in case, before I started giving them a hard time. So I Googled average teacher salary in Minneapolis and looked at the first 4 hits. There I got averages of $48,000 and $50,000 for Minneapolis teachers specifically and $47,000 and $54,000 for Minnesota teachers generally.
I didn’t want to believe that old Dick was lying or maybe just talking straight out of his posterior, so I was delighted to see that the fifth hit was a link to a PDF of the actual Minneapolis teaching contract. Whew! It’s 234 pages long and it’s not really easy to interpret everything in there, but I did find out a couple of things that seemed pretty clear. One was that the contract is for 196 days, not 182. The second is that it appears the highest salary a teacher can earn in Minneapolis is $87,566.
So I guess you were pretty close, Dick. Your estimate of time worked was only low by about 7%. And your average teacher salary was only about 6% higher than the maximum possible salary a teacher can earn. Congratulations on “getting your numbers right.”
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Mr. Velner,
Perhaps that number for South Carolina is correct. Here is Pennsylvania, the average across the state in 2011-2012 was $63,856 according to http://www.openpagov.org/k12_payroll.asp
Currently in my district, the highest paid teachers make $78,000 Those are teachers with at least 16 years experience and a doctorate. We are contracted for 189 days per year. As a teacher, you should know that teachers actually work more than they are required by contract. Therefore, even if teachers in Minneapolis make that much money, I am certain they put in hours that push their work year higher.
By the way, a 30-second Bing search led me to this nugget of information: http://www.teachersalaryinfo.com/average-teacher-salary-south-carolina.html
Perhaps you should get your numbers right.
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Mr. Velner,
I suggest you get your numbers right. A quick search led me to this nugget of information: http://www.teacherportal.com/salary/South-Carolina-teacher-salary
Obviously, as a teacher, you know salaries vary from place to place.
You should also know that most teachers put in much more time than their required contractual hours.
One final question, as someone else pointed out, where is your evidence that outcomes from public education are disastrous? Surely you don’t believe all the statistics on testing? As a teacher, you should realize that standardized tests are not as reliable as some people say they are, and that statistics can be juggled to say what the person wants them to say.
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Poor Dick! Dick can’t count.
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dickveiner (interesting name) says that he is “convinced that the outcomes from public education are disastrous.”
Yet, he offers up not a scintilla of evidence to back up that statement.
There’s a reason for that. It isn’t true.
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I didn’t mean to double post. The first one disappeared for several hours. Sorry for being repetitive.
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