As you may know, Michelle Rhee is holding three “teacher town halls” in which she and Steve Perry and George Parker talk to an audience who are allowed to submit questions.
George Parker was previously the head of the D.C. teachers union; he now works for Rhee.
Steve Perry, once a commentator for CNN, runs a magnet school in Hartford. Earlier this year in Minnesota, he spoke at a public forum and called unions “roaches” and accused teachers of being responsible for the “literal death” of children.
The first was held in Los Angeles, the second in Birmingham, and the third will be held in Philadelphia on September 16. (Ironically, I will be speaking in Philadelphia on the next night at the Free Library.)
G.F. Brandenburg, retired D.C. math teacher, explains here how the “teacher town halls” work.
Philadelphia is a great place to have a genuine conversation with teachers.
The governor cut the state education budget by $1 billion.
Thousands of teachers and other school staff were laid off last spring.
Many schools are opening without guidance counselors, social workers, teachers of the arts, basic supplies.
Teachers should try to attend Rhee’s “teacher town hall” and see what solutions the panel offers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And we have to pay to listen to Rhee lie and Perry insults us? No way! Protest instead.
What a combo…the Bonnie and Clyde of school deform.
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The Erase to the Top Tour travels on!
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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/09/michelle_rhees_plan_for_educat.html
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Steve perry is well known around Hartford for his lies and deception. He claims to get 100% of his students into college – not true. Ask to see the real numbers that the system releases not his numbers? He illegally sends coaches out to recruit athletes. He avoids the well established lottery system by chasing students who score well on standardized tests. When looking to call someone a roach he need look no further than his own mirror.
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He’s also famous for this one liner: “We need to make it snow in here.”
This is his chant at staff meetings. Translation: keep and recruit more middle class white families.
I suppose this helps his test scores.
Yes, Charlie…talk about a roach. He is the king of all roaches.
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Let’s not insult roaches-At least over the centuries they,unlike Steve Perry, have evolved. I’d hazard a guess that roaches have more integriy than Mr. Perry, too.
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Someone spray some RAID on the man . . .
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And then stomp until you can’t stomp any longer. Squish your shoe back and forth.
Rub IT out!
Perry be-gone.
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Linda:
So mean and SO appropriate! Time to boil my shoes in bleach. . . . .
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The C&FRAA has enlisted my pseudo-lawyer like skills (like charging said association out the yingyang to type this) to demand that you cease and desist associating our loyal members with such despicable characters as Rhee, Perry and Parker or any other of the edudeformer ilk. If you continue to persist in presenting such associations I have been authorized by the C&FRAA to seek redress through the legal system (much to the delight of my financial advisor).
Cease and desist now or our members may invite themselves into your home.
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C&FRAA = Crawling and Flying Roach Association of America
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That is an insult to roaches.
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I wonder if Steve Perry has a criminal background. Does anyone know?
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Not sure…but his Phd is sham.
See Mercedes Schneider’s research here:
Steve Perry’s Dissertation: Heavy on Lit Review, Slight on Scholarship
May 18, 2013
As a classroom teacher, a real teacher– real in the sense of both my credentials and my experience– I am tired of those outside of the classroom catapulting themselves into positions of quick fame in order to comment on the state of the classroom– a place either completely unfamiliar to them firsthand or of only token familiarity. Such is the motivation for my writing many of my posts, and it is my motivation here as I write about Steve Perry.
Steve Perry is not a teacher. Yet he is one of many would-be reformers who has stepped up to claim his moment in the spotlight as an education expert– and one whose contempt for teachers is obvious.
Though not a teacher, Perry was a CNN education commentator, and he opened and leads his own school in Connecticut, Capitol Preparatory Magnet School, a year-round school that advertises sending ”100% of its graduates to 4 year colleges.” The big question is one of student attrition prior to that senior year.
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Thanks. Calling human beings “roaches” is often a sure sign of poor character. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this man has a past to match his language.
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Wasn’t there some question awhile back about the legitimacy of his doctorate? I seem to recall having seen an article that delved into it.
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Whoops – there it is right above my post! I guess I am not good at performing a “close reading of the text.”
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Yes, read above…great minds. We posted simultaneously. 🙂
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I wonder if Bloomberg, Klein, Broad, Weingarten, Roekel, Thorpe, the Waltons, Gates, and the National Governors’ Association have one also?
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I was referring to “criminal backgrounds” . . . .
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Is Perry connected financially to Rhee?
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You were expecting a democratic forum? Businesses are not happy with democracy because it is slow and resists disruption… oh, wait, I thought the businesses LOVED disruption!
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“Teachers should try to attend Rhee’s “teacher town hall” and see what solutions the panel offers.”
Even better, Rhee’s “Teacher Town Hall” staff, complete with their heavies, should try to attend classes in a Philadelphia school and see what their policies have wrought, and then be made to look into a mirror.
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Members of APPS (Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools) will be outside Rhee’s event in Philadelphia. We will be dressed as the professionals teachers are, contrary to what Rhee preaches. Join us for a REAL dialogue on education!
lmhaver82@yahoo.com
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http://www.cbpp.org
See there graph. Shows Massachusetts is doing not too badly.
But the schools in Oklahoma must be suffering.
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at CBPP.org scroll down to the K-2 headline
K-12 Education (don’t stop at the article on poverty)
quote: “Most States Funding Schools Less Than Before the Recession
States’ new budgets are providing less per-pupil funding for kindergarten through 12th grade than they did six years ago — often far less.
At a time when states and the nation are trying to produce workers with the skills to master new technologies and adapt to the complexities of a global economy, this decline in state educational investment is cause for concern. Read more (at CBPP)
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You know who else was fond of calling their opponents “roaches”? The Hutu leadership in Rwanda just before they ordered the mass slaughter of the Tutsis.
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Meanwhile the President of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers spent Saturday afternoon with Rev. Al.
People better start paying attention to history. They are counting on us having collective amnesia!
http://tinyurl.com/kgkmvud
http://tinyurl.com/ko2yuya
http://tinyurl.com/ktdba5w
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I am sure that members of Alabama’s recently formed education reform group, Business and Education Alliance of Alabama (BEA) attended the Town Hall Meeting in Birmingham.
I wish that I could have at least gone and stood outside if not actually attending, but alas and to no surprise, Rhee held it on a school night, making it hard for teachers from other cities to attend.
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I am a retired teacher and know the importance of unions protecting teachers. This they do in an ok way, but as far as representing good practices and defending them,
“cockroaches” is just a “little” extreme. There definitely is room for improvement and many of the best minds in education pushed for Obama to appoint Linda Daring Hammond over his basketball buddy Arne. As much as I support anyone who feels that teachers could be better, working with Michelle Rhee, who has no experience, might qualify for the cockroach award.
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At LAUSD Friday the 13th another cockroach magically died. Another corrupt Asst. Sup. of Instruction is going, going, gone, Jaime Aquino. Go read his crybaby reasons for leaving at http://www.dailynews.com at education or maybe on the front page. The reality is that in the last week and leading up to that is the fact of the $2.5 billion Title 1 lawsuit filed by the California Title 1 Parents Union in Federal and State Court. The fact that for more than two years LAUSD has been breaking Federal Title 1 law and it looks like they are going to be audited and investigated. Then you have the I-Pad debacle. Thanks to the wonderful commenter on the Ravich Blog who posted the Feb. 12, 2013 Jaime Aquino Power Point we now know this. On page 10 each one to begin will be $50 million divided by 31,278 students and staff = $1,592.59 each. Later in the power point it says
“We will pay no more than $200/device and have a 5 year guarantee against failure and theft.
Suddenly, at a recent board meeting, the board approves $30 million for 3,000 I-Pads or $1,000 each. Now suddenly again, OH, we forgot about keyboards until the debacle in N.Y. Real Pros aren’t they?
Now the question is how In February was it $200 each and a 5 year guarantee, then in September it is now $1,000 and a 3 year guarantee and stated in public was that there were no terms and conditions to the contract yet and yet they approved it on Aquino and Deasy. OK.
If you were Aquino and this ton of bricks were ready to come down on your head, and this is only the beginning, what would you do? You would get out of Dodge and leave the mess to those who were going to try to slime you with their problems. You have to innoculate yourself or try anyway.
Friday, CORE-CA sent a letter to all board members stating that an open process with all concerned including parents, students, teachers, community and unions as happened with the process for Ruben Zacarias for superintendent of LAUSD. We have the corruption of now both Judy Elliott at LAUSD and with the Buffalo, N.Y. and other places problems and Jaime Aquino in many areas also fully documented. Considering the facts on the ground it is reasonable to have this process. It is a given that the Board of Education has the final say of the finalists, but, the process needs to have the public input so that they are not hoodwinked again.
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A very interesting alternative view of Aquino’s departure.
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Looks like Rhee’s husband is also under the microscope. http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/10/5723962/fppc-will-investigate-allegation.html#disqus_thread
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He’s been there before…sexual misconduct with a minor:
Click to access Phoenix_Police.source.prod_affiliate.4.pdf
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Rhee’s policies are a de facto misconduct with all children . . . .
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When Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, was under investigation last year for alleged financial misdeeds and inappropriate behavior with female students, he had an important ally behind the scenes.
Michelle Rhee, the nationally known education reformer who is now head of the Washington, D.C., public schools, had several conversations with a federal inspector general in which she made the case for Johnson and the school he ran in Sacramento, according to the inspector general. Rhee, who had served on the board of the school and is now engaged to marry Johnson, said he was “a good guy.”
Rhee’s position had little effect on the inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who filed a criminal referral to the U.S. attorney on Johnson, a self-described friend and supporter of President Obama. But both the Sacramento police and federal attorneys declined to pursue charges. Walpin, who protested the prosecutors’ handling of the case, was ultimately fired by the Obama White House in June. [LA Times]
Rhee sat on the board of Johnson’s charter school in Sacramento, St. Hope and has accompanied Johnson on a number of other official trips. You can read more about Michelle Rhee in my prior profile of her here.
http://rokdrop.com/2009/11/23/michelle-rhee-linked-to-kevin-johnson-sex-scandal-cover-up/
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Connections get you the chance to avoid justice . . . . . or to get more justice than you deserve, all depending on who you know.
Sounds like Eastern Europe in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s.
Or Uganda.
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Really layoffs and cut backs all you got. Try 80-90% english learner’s.
Lets focus together on what’s important as a nation of teachers for learning so policy makers don’t get in our way.
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? ? ? ?
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A little context for your comments please.
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