Even though Michelle Rhee suffered multiple embarrassments in the past few weeks–with John Merrow reporting her refusal to investigate the cheating scandal that occurred on her watch and the Broader Bolder Approach reporting the failure of her “reforms”—her organization continues to push her failed “reforms” on states across the nation.
StudentsFirst pumped over $317,000 into legislative races in Iowa to ensure that legislators would listen to its radical, anti-public education message. It was the single biggest contributor to state races in 2012.
Now it is filling the airwaves with ads urging the legislature to adopt changes that will advance Rhee’s personal vendetta against teachers and public education.
She demands that teacher evaluations be tied to test scores, even though research and experience have shown that this strategy consistently fails, as it failed in DC. She wants a parent trigger law, so that parents can be duped into privatizing their community public school and turning it over to one of the corporate charter chains.
Iowans should demand that StudentsFirst fully disclose the source of its funding so they can find out who is behind this campaign, other than the former leader of one of the nation’s lowest-performing districts. And Iowans should remember John Merrow’s conclusion that DC is worse off after five years of the Rhee-Henderson leadership by almost every measure: test scores, graduation rates, truancy, teacher turnover, enrollments, etc.

I’ve met her a few times. She’s petulant and I can just imagine these ads. Why do I see a child yelling, screaming and throwing a tantrum?
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My condolences to you. I hope you have fully recovered!
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Here’s an irony. When Tom Vilsack, now Secretary of Agriculture, was Governor of Iowa, he drew a line in the sand and said so long as he held that office there would be no graduation tests in Iowa. As I recall, Iowa tended to do very well on NAEP.
Part of VIlsack’s motivation came from the fact that his wife was a teacher until he became Governor.
Of course, under Branstad you have a very different approach.
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Ok. Now I understand about Deasy. It sounds a little shady.
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This is why I call them “Students Last” as that is what they are really about. Another phrase for them is “Billionaires First.”
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Anybody here major in Communication? One thing that is taught is how commercials are education. Commercials are almost always used as education. Got a tooth ache? Brush with Brand X toothpaste and you won’t. Not feeling sexy enough? Maybe you need to buy the new X Class Luxury high-end car. Hungry after lunch on the new diet? Brand Z diet pills contain more active ingredient than most name brands and can therefore suppress hunger longer – till dinner. Commercials throw up false problems, fake or real, and show how you can so easily solve this problem. They educate you often without you actively thinking about it.
The dark side is kicking our rear because we are letting them educate the public with print adds, radio spots, TV commercials and even motion pictures. The media – TV, cable, newspaper, magazines is how we learn after school. Yes, I can hear some grumbling now, “what about the Internet”? Well, we learn from that too. Study after study shows that as you go down the scale of socioeconomics the Internet is used mostly for entertainment – games, music, gossip etc… You know, the stuff made and owned by the super rich.
What we need to do is stop grumbling amongst ourselves and start proselytizing our message. We have a mountain of evidence and truth on our side. We need someone with the money and time and focus to make a movie and maybe a few short TV spots. Maybe call it “Reform Debunked” or Lies, Lies and Damn Lies – The story of Rhee and the Reformers. Heck, that even sounds like a band name – Rhee and the Reformers. Maybe someone could make a funny music video showing Rhee and the rest dressed like The Supremes or some other 60’s band and have the lyrics be about what they REALLY are doing. Then show it to friends and family and make it go viral. That is what we need – we need to fight fire with fire. Our children are counting on us.
Now, does anybody know any person or organization that is willing to take this on?
/ I got this idea after watching Ancient Aliens Debunked. As a science teacher I was always pretty skeptical of some of the claims made on Ancient Aliens. I thought that the the debunked movie did an excellent job of education the public on the truth about many of the outright false and misrepresented claims made in the TV series. If you have not seen the movie please go to Youtube and type in “Ancient Aliens Debunked” and just watch a small section to see how easily it was done.
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Bob the Science Guy, the good news is that there is a major mainstream documentary in production now….unless Gates or Broad or Bloomberg buys PBS
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Isn’t there also a major book coming out in the fall? One that is set to debunk some of the hoaxes ?!
😉
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Ang! Yes, it is called “Reign of Error: The Hoax of Privaization and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.” Publication date: September 3. Knopf.
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All very true about Rhee.
But here’s something new about Michelle Rhee that I didn’t know before John Merrow’s lastest columns, published earlier this month: Michelle Rhee falsified items on her resume. Possibly two of them.
I know of people who have been dismissed from their jobs when it came to light that they had lied on their resume. This is no minor offense and it says something about the character and integrity of Rhee that she would do something like this and expect to get away with it.
I’m somewhat surprised that there has been no follow up on these charges of Rhee falsifying her resume. Why not? These are serious allegations and they need to be investigated along with the cheating that went on in the DC schools and the apparent cover up and whitewash that occurred when an actual investigation was supposed to happen.
What did Michelle Rhee lie about on her resume and why did she do it?
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People on here said the Supt. of LA lied too. I guess it doesn’t seem to matter to anyone. I thought most people would get fired for lying on a resume.
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NO, Deasy did not lie. There are however questions about how he received his doctorate. His mentor transferred from where he was doing his doctorate (?Providence?) to Memphis and Deasy followed him, where he received his doctorate without having the minimum time in residence according to University rules. Thus some people have questioned whether Deasy legitimately has a doctorate, which was required for his position in Prince George’s County, where he was between Santa Monica and the Gates Foundation. The University took no account to rescind his degree, so technically it is not a lie.
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People is Iowa, don’t be foolish enough to adopt this junk. Look at other states that have passed this garbage. You won’t help education but you will help the people that Rhee represents (super wealthy corporatizers) get richer.
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I receive their e-mails. They mislead well intentioned parents. I’m relieved I happened upon this network.
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