Stephanie Simon of politico.com reports on the story behind Michelle Rhee-Johnson’s decision to step down as leader of StudentsFirst, the organization she founded in 2010.
Although she managed to raise some millions from big donors like the Eli and Edythe BroadFoundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Michael Bloomberg Foundation for her efforts to curb collective bargaining, eliminate tenure and promote vouchers and charters, she fell far short of her announced goal of $1 billion.
But even more important, Rhee-Johnson alienated some of her allies in the movement.
“As she prepares to step down as CEO, she leaves a trail of disappointment and disillusionment. Reform activists who shared her vision say she never built an effective national organization and never found a way to use her celebrity status to drive real change.
“StudentsFirst was hobbled by a high staff turnover rate, embarrassing PR blunders and a lack of focus. But several leading education reformers say Rhee’s biggest weakness was her failure to build coalitions; instead, she alienated activists who should have been her natural allies with tactics they perceived as imperious, inflexible and often illogical. Several said her biggest contribution to the cause was drawing fire away from them as she positioned herself as the face of the national education reform movement.
““There was a growing consensus in the education reform community that she didn’t play well in the sandbox,” one reform leader said.
Rhee-Johnson says she intends to devote more time to her family, which some assume means that her husband Kevin Johnson may run for governor or senator of California. Whether Rhee-Johnson will spend more time with her two daughters who live in Tennessee is unclear.
She recently announced her decision to become chairman of her husband’s charter schools. In some states, that would be considered nepotism, but apparently not in California.
The growing recognition of the failure of her style of high-stakes testing and test-based teacher evaluation did not seem to have played a role in her decision to step aside. Probably, living in the corporate reform echo chamber, she was unaware that her prize policies are on the ropes, as parents and teachers join to fight the reign of standardized testing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How much money did she glum for herself and her buds along the way ???
http://teachersdontsuck.blogspot.com/
http://wsautter.com/
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Sounds like many of the same problems/issues of some union leaders.
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Therefore she never had solutions except to promote herself and create a new job after failing as a chancellor and abusing children as a temp for a while intern. DC schools just ranked 51/51. Epic failure
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“Some union leaders…?” That’s a large net you’re casting. I think that we need to remember that we are the union, and that we have opportunities to not only participate in union activities and actions, but to select or reject those who run for office. Rather than tar all union leaders, you need to name those you have reason to believe have the “same problems/issues” as Rhee. Demand investigations and reveal the corruption you have witnessed. If you can’t or won’t name them, you have nothing to contribute but dissent. It’s like complaining about someone behind their back.
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How low have we sunk that it’s news that Michelle Rhee-Johnson doesn’t know how to treat even potential allies with courtesy, respect and decency?
Or that she was perceived by other self-styled ‘education reformers’ as [see the article] “imperious, inflexible and often illogical”?
Michelle Rhee-Johnson likes hard data points. Here’s one from the article.
“An education reform leader familiar with her tactics said Rhee made audacious demands of potential backers — once asking for $50 million from a single donor. (She got $1 million, this source said.)”
Ok. She went for $50 million, got $1 million—that means she got 2% of what she went for. Fair or not, I am going to apply her own standards to herself: that makes her “grossly ineffective” [see the Vergara testimony].
And all that hoopla about raising $1 billion? In the article is a money quote [pun intended] from a peer: “‘The billion-dollar figure was kind of ridiculous from the get-go,’ said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform.”
What more could be expected from the self-same delusional person who lapped up the “ridiculous” praise from the principal of the school she worked in that she had taken her students from the 13th to the 90th percentile? *Don’t forget that she had a co-teacher and couldn’t possibly have been responsible for that all by herself even if it happened.*
The coup de grace: “Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t.” [“Dr.” Steve Perry, channeling rapper Jay-Z].
No, you can’t argue with the numbers. No objections allowed:
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
Even a broken clock is right two times a day.
😎
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Based on her track record her husband is probably the only one who would hire her. Rhee is damaged goods.
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The next question would be, who would want to work under her?
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Unfortunately, I don’t really think the “reform” movement is on the ropes. It seems to me that many (although certainly not around here) have bought-in to the reformster’s siren songs of accountability, “college and career readiness,” etc., and are only disputing the means of pursuing these things. So you have Oklahoma and South Carolina repealing CCSS, but promising to create “even better” standards that REALLY get kids ready for college and career. **Sigh**
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The reform movement is on the ropes in Texas as a result of parent and teacher advocacy against high-stakes testing and Pearson Inc. Sandy Kress, architect of NCLB and Pearson’s chief lobbyist did not understand the power of parents. I’m still laughing about what happened during the past legislative session. Read the TAMSA website for more information. Also, reporter Jason Stanford has followed the testing issues closely in Texas.
http://www.tamsatx.org
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I’m inclined to agree with the claim that the “reform movement” is going to go away… not soon…But the risk in not trying is that this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy and terrible legacy.
It is hardwired onto federal policy and funding, from NCLB to RttT to Teacher Incentive grants. Although the federal share of state school budgets is relatively small–it has typically been around 8% to 12% of a state budget…politicians are eager to find scapegoats for fiscal shortfalls–teachers and schools are an easy target.
Add the unrelenting work of ALEC and the billionaires who endorse of all this “free marketeering” and you have a lot of hard work. We also have a population curve that tropes toward seniors who are not as engaged as the host of this blog in K-12 education, and so many others who have been taught to think school choice is their prerogative as “customers.”
This is also to say the culture of consumerism has seriously eroded the values that once sustained a lot of commercial-free mental and physical spaces and activities.
Profit-seeking in the name of the “common good” is entrenched in previously taken-for-granted institutions–evident in for-profit prisons, in commercial naming rights for civic centers and all or portions of public schools– and so on.
For many reasons we may hope for a tempering or reversal of these cultural changes, but the arc of history from mid-century last into of the early part of this century seems to favor Milton Friedman’s legacy more than the legacy of a long line of leaders who valued public schools enough to seek enlargements in those enrolled eliminating once common pre-conditions for entry based on wealth, immigrant status, religion, skin color, ethnicity, physical ability, mental adeptness, gender and gender identification.
I hope the the numbers of us who are not “free marketeers” are huge and savvy enough to figure out how to retain one of America’s most important institutions–public schools, even they come with some warts and operate without compulsive nailbiting and micromanaging and are not holding back every third grader who fails to pass muster in reading at some normative level determined by statisticians at Metametrics, profiteers at Pearson, and economists Kane, Chetty, Hanuschek et.al.
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It would be illuminating to find out much her net worth increased since she left DC. And does she get a golden parachute leaving StudentsFirst?
I would bet on two things: she’s doing just fine financially. And whenever someone laid out to her she had to go, it was not a pretty scene.
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Prize Policies On The Ropes are of absolutely no concern to this crowd. This is organizational socio-pathology full throttle, a firewall of practiced Narcissism that feels no pain even as it inflicts it, a nearly bottomless sack of strategy and misadventure.
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Isn’t this the definition of Occam’s Razor?
And, yes, the net worth question is an interesting one.
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Rhee has been rhee-jected by the corporate reformers.
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Oh, C’mon. Let’s not be that hard on Michelle Rhee Johnson.
She has feelings too, just like the poor shark did when she swallowed Robert Shaw in “Jaws”.
Why not give her a few screen tests to do some dog food commercials, or be the mascot for car dealerships . . . . or maybe she can be the new glam girl spokesperson for a spiffy line of Medicare Part D products.
There has to be something for her.
H-m-m-m-m.
Maybe she can fight in an ad campaign to bring back Hostess baked goods. Crappy erstaz artifical pastries from a crappy erstaz educational advocate.
“Ho-Hos and Ding-Dongs First”.
Michelle, I’ll be your agent. Someone has to do it . . . . .
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Halloween outfits?
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Michelle modeling them, or costumes depicting her own image. As in one can buy or rent a a costume to look like Michelle Rhee Johnson and scare the intestines out of your party guests?
And would Michelle receive royalties?
Please clarify.
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Having followed Rhee what seems to be ignored by the mainstream press is that she was a creation of the press. She never was successful. Her “fame” was not based on accomplishments, her fame was a carefully planned fabrication designed and implemented by her donors who used her to disrupt. When she “arrived” in DC within a month she was touted as hard hitting, fearless etc. Even though schools did not open with working schedules etc. When has any other head of schools received National attention without any real, “measurable”,. Who pushed for her to be interviewed by Charlie Rose, onTime Magazine, the Washingtonian, OPB, etc. She was a creation of the 1% based on no accomplishments and falsified credentials. She never succeeded or achieved anything on her own. And no one asked why is she getting so much attention. She was never vetted and if she had not been protected by the press and wealthy donors she would never been hired or she would have been fired for falsifying her resume’, covering up allegations of child abuse (Sacramento), the cheating scandal, perjury related to firing teachers without due process and based on lying about the budget.
Sadly, she was never committed to providing children with with great educational experiences because she did not know how. Leaders that don’t know how to lead mask their ignorance by creating scapegoats and fostering a culture of fear.
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Excellent post! I’m curious about her MSNBC promoters. Joe and Mika drank gallons of the Kool-Aid.
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She didn’t fare so well on CBS morning with Nora O’Donnell and Jane Pauley. Even her handler, Boies, babbled and catch his MASS teacher comment at the end. Evidence sir?
However, Campbell was exemplary when smiling and nodding.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/campbell-brown-and-lawyer-david-boies-team-up-for-teacher-tenure-reform/
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You’ve correctly pointed out the similarity between Michelle Rhee and Sarah Pailin. Both were creations of the press: illusions without substance; mere images. But the damage that Rhee and Pailin have and continue to cause are disturbing.
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Palin, Campbell Brown and Rhee lack the intellectual curiosity to review evidence.
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“StudentsFirst was hobbled by a high staff turnover rate…”
Wait, high staff turnover rates hobble organizations? Who knew?
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We really, really need a “like” button on this site!
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cyn3wulf: TAGO!
😎
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Paraphrased – the money behind the agenda stated Rhee took the heat off them. True; but she loved every minute of it.
It takes a special kind of scoundrel (I want a stronger word but I will refrain) to accept the position of cutting down trees in the rain forest, and performing said job with such relish and delight.
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Michelle Rhee makes more in an hour of bashing public school teachers & their
unions as the average starting teacher makes in a year—while we have to
read the outrageous stuff that her supporters claim about how self-less
and noble she is..
However, before considering her sky-high speaking fees,
first read as one of her backers blathers about how Rhee is
now “shunning high salaries” to “improve the lot of our nation’s
students,” and how she was targeted and victimized in D.C. because she
“put students first.”
Check out what WAITING FOR SUPERMAN director Davis Guggenheim wrote
in his blurb accompanying her page in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Important
People list:
(CAPS are mine… Jack… it’s in the last paragraph)
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066128,00.html
—————————————
DAVIS GUGGENHEIM:
“She (Michelle Rhee) SET A GOAL TO IMPROVE THE LOT OF THE NATION’S
STUDENTS, and she has stuck to that. And she PAID DEARLY FOR IT,
stepping down from her D.C. post in 2010 after Mayor Adrian Fenty lost
his bid for re-election, a public rejection that some saw as A
REPUDIATION OF THE TOUGH STEPS to raise the standards of the city’s
public schools.
“Subsequently, SHE SHUNNED ANY HIGH-SALARY OFFERS that resulted from
her high-profile tenure and INSTEAD FOUNDED HER OWN ORGANIZATION.
” ‘PUTTING KIDS FIRST’ could be a pithy slogan. For many it is.FOR RHEE, IT’S A LIFELONG COMMITMENT.”
—————————————
Hey Davis, you know who else has to “pay dearly”? The folks who have to pay to have this woman speak for an hour or two!
Ms. Rhee may have “shunned any high salary offers” after the voters
of D.C. ran her out of town, but she sure isn’t shy about lapping up her
$50K / hour speaking fees!
(NOTE: her 2013 STUDENTS FIRST tax forms indicate she currently makes $350,000 annually… isn’t that “a high salary?)
It’s nice that her “lifelong commitment” to “putting kids first” pays so well.
Here’s Hollywood agency CAA’s promo blurb for her:
http://caaspeakers.com/michelle-rhee/
——————————————————————-
“In the ever-evolving landscape of education in America, Michelle
Rhee has been working tirelessly for the past two decades to give
children the skills and knowledge they will need to compete in a
changing world.
“From adding instructional time after school and visiting students’
homes as a third grade teacher in Baltimore, to hosting hundreds of
community meetings and creating a Youth Cabinet to bring students’
voices into reforming the DC Public Schools, Michelle has always been
guided by one core principle: put students first.”
——————————————————————
Wow, Rhee has “been guided by one core principle: put students first.”
How touching and noble of her? Given that moving statement, I’m sure
that—like, say, Dr. Diane Ravitch—Ms. Rhee probably donates her time to give
speeches and make appearances… at most only asking to have her expenses
covered.
Wait a sec. I just found something on-line. It says that… Ms. Rhee…
NO, I DON’T BELIEVE IT… SOMEBODY’S LYING OR MAKING THIS UP TO HARM HER REPUTATION…
No… it says that… she actually CHARGES MONEY (???!!!) for her speeches?
Say it ain’t so!
And that, when giving speeches, she is represented by the top Hollywood agency C.A.A., Creative Artists Agency?
Well, I’m sure her pay is just a small honorarium… as, like you, Dr.
Ravitch, her true motives are to improve the educational lives of
children, and to make sure every child has a great teacher at the front
of his or her classroom, and, as Davis Guggenheim puts it, her mission
to “put students first,” while “shunning high salaries.”
What’s that? It’s NOT just a token honorarium. Let me guess…
$1,000?
$2,000?
Higher? You gotta be kidding!
$5,000?
$10,000?
Get outta town!
$15,000?
$20,000?
What? She gets more than that just for an hour or two of speaking and answering questions?
Really? It’s actually higher?
$25,000?
$30,000?
Okay, someone’s just winding me up here. There’s NO WAY she charges more than THAT!!!
$50,000!
BINGO!!!!!
$50,000???!!! I don’t believe it.
Somebody’s gotta be making that up to discredit Ms. Rhee. It’s
probably some evil, corrupt defenders-of-a-failed-status-quo teachers
union thugs who put adult teachers’ interests ahead of
children/students’ interest that hacked into C.A.A.’s website and
created… yeah, it’s probably them who are making up and spreading these
lies in an effort to harm Ms. Rhee’s reputation, and protect those
teachers’ own selfish interest and cushy jobs-for-life.
Apparently not.
Some enterprising writer named Molly Bloom at the on-line publication
STATE IMPACT actually got a copy of the contract that Rhee uses for her
personal appearances and posted it on-line.
Oh, will you just shut up and gimme that link!
http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2011/10/10/michelle-rhee-to-speak-at-kent-statestark-prompts-faculty-to-organize-counter-event/
What’s that? Just scroll down and you can see
a scanned copy of Rhee’s boilerplate contract? Hmmm….
Yep! There it is… In the contract posted, $35,000 is indeed what
she’s getting paid to speak at Kent State, plus a bunch o’ FIRST CLASS
expenses. .. (She claims here that she was discounting her usual $50,000
/ hour fee because the venue, Kent State, was “a school.)
The contract posted is the actual one used for Ms. Rhee’s appearance at at Kent State University,
Why, that’s SECOND worst atrocity ever associated with that school’s
history. (“Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming… Four dead in O – hi – o… “)
(Watch this whole video… it’s pretty well done!)
I like how the “Purchaser”—the entity or person who hires her— sends the payment to:
“Rhee Enterprises, LLC” (PAGE 2)
Helping improve the education of children and “putting students first” is a lucrative Big Business, apparently.
There’s more on PAGE 3:
——————————————————————
“a. Purchaser shall provide the Artist with one (1) First Class
round-trip, unrestricted, fully-refundable airplane tickets, or cash
equivalent, at Artist’s election;
“b. Purchaser shall one (1) VIP hotel suite; Purchaser to make and
confirm reservations in consultation with the Artist; Artist reserves
the right to choose hotel;
“c. Purchaser to provide the Artist with meals and all reasonable incidentals;
“d. Purchase shall provide Artist with a towncar and Professional
Driver for round-trip transportation from the Artist’s home to the
airport, airport to hotel, hotel to engagement, or any combination
thereof;”
——————————————————————
Yes, that’s right… Rhee demands not just a hotel room, but a “VIP
hotel suite” at a hotel approved by her, as well as a towncar with a
chauffer to drive her around???!!!
Come one. Be fair. Don’t beat up on Rhee because of this. You need all that if you’re going to be “putting students first.”
Item 6 is telling. Michelle or her agent crosses out the following:
——————————————————————
(CROSSED OUT WITH A PEN)
“6. RESPONSIBILITY for EVENT-RELATED TAXES. Purchase agrees to pay
any and all local, State, and/or Federal rental, amusement, sales or
other taxes as required by law.”
——————————————————————
Next to the crossing out, Michelle or her agent scrawls,
“TAX EXEMPT”…
… as Students First is a non-profit organization.
Awww, that’s too bad. That money would have gone to the state’s
general fund for education, as Ohio schools are hurting for cash right
now.
Item 9 is interesting:
——————————————————————
“9. ARTIST’S MERCHANDISING RIGHTS. Artist shall have the right, but
not the obligation, to sell souvenir programs and other merchandising
items on the premises on the place of the presentation without
participation by the Purchaser, subject to local venue’s contract
requirements, if any, of which the Artist is notified in writing.”
——————————————————————
(INSERT JOKE HERE… it’s too easy… i.e. Michelle Rhee T-shirts, action figures, etc.)
There’s also a pay-or-play clause, which means that if the event is
cancelled for any reason, you have to pay Michelle her $35K anyway
(or $50 K, which is her regular quote… she charged $35 K in this case
because Kent State is “an educational institution.)
Reading this I feel like I’m watching a final scene of “THE WOLF OF
WALL STREET”, where the slimebucket and convicted Wall Street felon
Jordan Belfort now makes a cushy living as a “motivational speaker.”
God save us all!
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The Kent State reference is important. It was another instance of the people, in this case students, standing up against big government out of control. We all now know how the war ended, but what we, and here I mean the collective “we” including the Vietnamese, learned and how we learned it was horrific. And while the current Corporate Reform movement cannot match the tragedy of the Viet Name war, they share the same traits of an equally ignorant and arrogant government – no longer of the people and by the people.
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I live just south of Sacramento. Rhee’s husband is promoting “strong mayor” status for himself. His big claim to fame in Sacramento is saving the Kings basketball franchise by putting together a coalition to build a new arena in downtown Sacramento. I’m not sure why the Kings basketball team and a new arena are the most important issues in California’s capital city. But since he came to us from the NBA, I guess it’s the old saying “if you’re a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.” We’ve tried having actors as governors. Now we have to dredge up candidates from the NBA?
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I would love to know what the staffers said to the legislators about Rhee’s state clueless directors after they made the 15 point legislative demands that were not operational based on state laws. It only takes one legislator to pick up the phone and register a complaint to Eli about Michelle.
Great article by Simon –
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/michelle-rhee-drops-out-of-school-group-110002.html
“Rhee’s state directors then promoted those policies and only those policies, without regard to local needs or political realities, according to activists who tried to work with them. In at least one case, the StudentsFirst team insisted on pushing legislation that clashed with other state laws and would have been impossible to implement, sources said.”
“They’d walk around with a 15-point legislative agenda and a legislator would say, ‘What are your top two on the list?’ and they would say, ‘Nope, we need all 15,’ — so then they got zero,” one activist said. “They were policy purists in a way that made them seem oblivious to political reality.”
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