Peter DeWitt writes a regular blog for Education Week. He is the principal of an elementary school in upstate New York. In this column, he says that Michelle Rhee’s organization does not put all students first. DeWitt describes the Tennessee legislator who was named “Reformer of the Year” by StudentsFirst. This legislator is known for his anti-gay proposals, as well as his efforts to increase the number of charter schools and evaluate teachers by test scores. DeWitt had a Twitter exchange with an official for StudentsFirst, who claims that the organization didn’t notice what else their honoree supported, and had they known, well, they would have done something different.

Categories Charter Schools, StudentsFirst

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Charles Baldwin says:

May 1, 2013 at 7:32 pm

No offense, but this is teh weak sauce…

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- Ang says:
  
  May 1, 2013 at 9:24 pm
  
  Disagree.
  When you have a group called “students first” and you endlessly claim you are all about doing things for the kids, and then you give your reformer of the year award to some one who is pushing legislation that would encourage (force?) teachers to discriminate against some of our most vulnerable students is just plain hypocritical and needs to be called out.
  If you are a public school teacher, you have a moral obligation to treat every child with equal respect, weather or not you agree with the child’s religion, orientation, political preferences or anything else.
  
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  - Charles Baldwin says:
    
    May 1, 2013 at 10:32 pm
    
    We’ll have to agree to disagree. While we’re agreeing, I think we can also agree that Rhee and StudentsFirst are worth fighting against because they are destroyers in reformer clothing.
    
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George Buzzetti says:

May 1, 2013 at 8:32 pm

This is why I call them ‘Students Last.” Young people are gay also. What is the big deal unless you are religiously fundamentalist. Even then we are supposed to have separation of church and state. Religious fundamentalists are driving the downfall of this country no matter the religion. Just look at the polling of those in the U.S. who believe that the world is only 5-10,000 years old and we played with dinosaurs. There is nothing wrong with regular, not fundamentalist, religion. Most do not really follow what they preach and the beliefs they say are theirs. Didn’t Jesus say Peace, Love and Brotherhood? What happened to that? Just ask yourself “Who is creating all the wars?” Mostly over some kind of religious belief of some sort or another. Don’t fundamentalists here say those bad Islamic believers? What makes them so special when Jews, Christians and Islamic believers say they are the only ones who know and if you do not follow me you are toast? Says who?

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- Harlan Underhill says:
  
  May 1, 2013 at 8:51 pm
  
  Christianity in its several major divisions, Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic, and Protestant, has a lot of violence in its history, but doctrinally, I don’t remember ANY of them advocating that it’s right to kill non-believers (even though they did kill for reasons of belief, and, of course, slavery was justified from Anglican pulpits in the south). Killing for heaven, jihadism, is the province of Salafist Muslims taking certain passages in the Koran as justification. But, nowadays, I think we do not see even Christian fundamentalists advocating killing non-believers. That seems to me to be the crucial distinction between sects. Every denomination makes an implied claim that they are right, but under the U.S. constitution only the Radical Muslims still seem to think murder is legitimate. So, George, I fully understand why you find it offensive that anyone offers a claim that you are toast (by hell flames) when you don’t follow their formulas, I do think there is an important distinction that should be made between religions that advocate peace and religions that advocate murder, whatever their historical record before they were tamed by civil and constitutional society. Christians are not causing wars any longer, any of them. Wahabi and Salafists Muslims are.
  
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  - Louisiana Purchase says:
    
    May 1, 2013 at 11:21 pm
    
    Apparently you haven’t heard of the Crusades or the Inquisition, Harlan?
    
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  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    May 1, 2013 at 11:23 pm
    
    “Christians are not causing wars any longer, any of them”.
    
    Bullshit, Harlan, xtians have just figured out that they can use other excuses and make it appear that it is not the “religion’s” fault. Your attempt to separate islam from xtianity just doesn’t hold true. They’re both belief systems that have and continue to advocate for “destroying the infidel”.
    
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- Charles Baldwin says:
  
  May 1, 2013 at 10:20 pm
  
  Most wars are over land, resources, and/or power. Even in wars where religion is involved, it is usually just an easy way to tell the two sides apart and to rally their people. It’s an easy, ready excuse, but it’s often not the underlying cause.
  
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Chuck says:

May 1, 2013 at 9:41 pm

How about a list of Rhee enablers that wont call her out for this or anything else? Duncan, Winfrey….

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Duane Swacker says:

May 1, 2013 at 11:19 pm

“had they known, well, they would have done something different.”

Of course, well, they would have! And I have some ocean front property at the Lake of the Ozarks in central MO. . . .

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