She is a little darling of the corporate media, isn't she? Just make the story sweet, syrupy, with some whipped cream on top.

Last edited Fri Feb 1, 2013, 07:34 PM - Edit history (1)

She's our new Sarah Palin now...Even though there is a mountain of evidence and research to expose her as a $$$$$ grubbing fraud, she ALWAYS gets the kid gloves treatment as her profile gets bigger...

I'm at least glad that all the DUers who were cheerleaders for her are long gone...

There are a few left, but they got quieter about supporting her when Erasuregate happened and then she became BFFs with Rick Scott.

She wrote a book? Why does this depress me?

"On crafting the idea to form StudentsFirst over dinner at a restaurant in Sacramento:

"I flew to Sacramento on September 24 to spend time with KMJ and his mom, Mother Rose... As soon as I walked into Mulvaney's restaurant, KMJ took one look at me and asked, 'What is it? You're contemplating something, I can tell.' ... My frustration came from the perspective of an education reformer - from the top. I figured that the right superintendent who was willing to make changes and had political backing could accomplish bold reforms. I was proved wrong, because I didn't figure in the power of the unions. KMJ was plotting and jotting notes. 'If we are going to make a difference, we need to start a movement. A movement of everyday people who are fed up with their kids getting a subpar education. We need to create a vehicle through which they can take action and drive change,' he said... KMJ kept jotting. We kept talking. Finally, he turned over his notes for Mother Rose and me to see. He had sketched out our new organization. We settled on a plan to create a national advocacy group that would raise money and build membership with the goal of providing political muscle to leaders who stood for change."

On StudentsFirst's strategy as a lobbying organization:

"The power of StudentsFirst is not in playing the inside game. The Teachers unions have a thirty-year head start on walking the halls of state capitols, bonding legislators to their causes and meting out retribution to those who cross them. We are not going to beat them at that game. We have to play and win in the outside game... We will have to put pressure on legislators they have never felt from anyone other than unions. We will need to counterbalance the unions' money with our members."

That's where the Obama administration and StudentsFirst came in. We worked with our members and reform organization partners across the state to educate the opinion makers, legislators, and general public about how poor the bill was and how it would be a step backward for California. Our members emailed and called legislative offices for days leading up to the vote... While we were successful in scuttling this bad piece of legislation, the lesson is stark. Not only are we nowhere close to trying to craft meaningful evaluation policy in California, but we're having to pull out all the stops to try to defend against legislation that would move the state in the wrong direction. Had StudentsFirst and the reform community failed to mobilize quickly, in all likelihood this bill would have swept through the legislature, moving the state's public education system backward, without any pushback or opposition. This is the dynamic that we're up against in California and the reason why it
.will take a massive grassroots movement to achieve education reform in the Golden State."

She thinks the CA teacher unions have no opposition here? I guess she snapped during our entire white knuckle fight against the Koch brothers and Prop 32. She must have known about it, ed reform buddy and DFER troll Gloria Romero sided with the right wing against her own party to come out and campaign *for* Prop 32.

http://fryingpannews.org/2012/10/05/how-gloria-romero-became-the-face-of-proposition-32/


I wouldn't be surprised to find out if Michelle Rhee is on the take from the Koch brothers, if not now, then soon in the future.

but here is a partial accounting.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/michelle-rhees-backers-in_n_1300146.html

A mix of the usual suspects and some big Republican money. The next couple of election cycles here are going to be...interesting. o.O

I believe Arne and Obama are fearful of talking against her, of standing up for the teachers she insults almost daily.

Then we elected the wrong guy.

He's supposed to have what it takes to lead a defense if hostile forces attack.

But he's afraid of a demagogue?

Her policy is his policy, that is for sure. Maybe he and Arne let her have free rein because they don't disagree with her.

I do believe people don't mess with her for a reason...just not sure what that reason is.

I think it's more likely that Obama agrees with Rhee than that he's afraid of her.

(And if he IS afraid of her, that's just pathetic; he's got more power than anyone but the Kochs and they're ilk)

Also, Rahm Emanuel and his family are heavily invested in privatizing public education.

Don't fool yourself, Obama has signed on to this.

I like that.

the parents unless they have access to help as well. I don't really look at my daughter's textbooks much. She never really needs my help with her homework, but this morning she had her pre-cal book out because her teacher asked her to put a cover on it to protect the book. While she had it out I got a good look at the cover and at the very top it said Core Curriculum Edition. It was like I was a vampire and I had just seen the sun. It was revolting. I pointed at the words and said that is why your brother is taking an 8th grade math class even though he is not at that cognitive level. I did just get to fill out an online survey given by the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. They were asking what we value more in a school's performance: high state test scores, or an ability to demonstrate a good rate of improvement. There was also a comment section where I told them that I did not appreciate that my son's curriculum was based soley on grade level and not on cognitive ability. I don't know if it will make a difference but at least they were aking the question.

They in their wisdom have decided that your kid will be tested on what they decide to put in a test.

That's why so many teachers are protesting these high stakes test. That's why these Seattle teachers are protesting the MAP test pushed by Broad and Gates, et al. It tests the kids on stuff that was not even covered in the classroom..

Battle in Seattle. Teachers take stand against high-stakes test. Could get suspensions

I agree with you that this one size fits all education is not going to fit anyone comfortably.

Teachers have been discredited by reformers and their governor stooges. I'm going to rant but will try to be brief. We gave standardized tests for the last 17 years I taught. The 10th grade test was given in the first two weeks of November, after the students had been in 10th grade for one quarter. When we would do test analysis the following spring I would point out that the students were taught the material on various questions they did poorly on in December, or February, or March. My recommendations for improvement was to give the test in April, after the curriculum had been taught(!). I was summarily dismissed, the state needed time to correct the tests (I, apparently, didn't need time to present the curriculum.). It was frustrating, dishonest even, and I felt that the real purpose of the tests was to prove the failure of public education. Parents can do a great deal to save their schools. Teachers are under a great deal of fire and they are not listened to or respected. It shouldn't be necessary but this is where we are.

It has taken a while for people to realize it. If not why are companies given carte blanche to make up proprietary tests with no oversight. Why are testing companies requiring parents to hire lawyers if they question a test score.

It's really bad stuff when you get down to the nitty gritty.

Such behavior would get teachers in many if not most states fired and their licenses suspended or revoked.

It is not believable a teacher would do that and think it is okay. Rhee seems to think it's really funny.

from 1992 to 1995. Her effectiveness:
http://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/the-rhee-miracle-examined-again-by-cohort/

Thanks for the link. He's right.

"Why does this matter?

Simply because I think it’s important for the public to know that the main spokesperson for the movement for additional dumb standardized testing, for teaching to the test, and for firing teachers based on those dumb tests, would herself have been fired under those criteria.

And she has lied repeatedly about that, and has repeatedly claimed that she performed some sort of miracle when she was teaching in Baltimore: a miracle that no-one else has ever, ever achieved.

Voters in DC, to their credit, saw through her lies and voted Adrian Fenty out of office largely because of her lies (I think) and the horrible effects she had on DC public schools. Yay! But in the rest of the country, people probably only know her because of adoring media coverage that paints her as some sort of saint; she has become an advisor to several right-wing Republican governors who think that the key to educational success is breaking teacher unions."

close to your home.

“When Gov. Rick Scott unveiled some of his education policy proposals with school-choice celeb Michelle Rhee this January, they paid a visit to a second-grade class at Florida International Academy in Opa-Locka to showcase the successes of school choice.

Oops.

The school rankings are out. And the academy’s new elementary school just got an F.
http://www.rheefirst.com/rick-scott-and-michelle-rhee-praise-charter-that-just-got-an-f

Bill Gates bought a whole county, a big one.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5977

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/6011

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/6872

Of course, it won't work. It isn't supposed to.

Note that the schools Gates, Duncan, and others send their kids to do NOT have such a classist agenda.

It's all about tracking students into low-wage, no future employment, and restricting higher education for the masses.

By "higher education," I mean high school.

I have an article, will see if I can find it.

for three years and performed miracles, or so she says. All of her miraculous claims about her experience in the classroom or in the administration office are sketchy. What is not sketchy are he bonafides as just another Ivy League grifter working a longcon on the parents of disadvantaged public schools kids to enrich her Wall Street sugar daddies.

That was after the hideous duct-tape episode.

Disgusting woman.

she parlayed her failures as a teacher and a human being into far more lucrative employment.

why the duct tape stunt wasn't a career killer for her. It is really inexcusable to do something like that. It's a wonder she wasn't frog marched out of the building and charged with child abuse. It's strange, but what's even stranger is that she finds it a humorous anecdote and no one ever calls her out on it publicly.

She's very narcissistic and sadistic.

So long as the duct tape wasn't ripped from her face she's fine with it.

It says something about the people around her who don't call her out on her "humorous anecdote".

if she had the dirt on her bosses and threatened to start blabbing...

She failed to perform her duties twice (at least). Making sure her brother had good grades and providing sundaes according to company policy.

Personally, I think she lies about Korean tradition that punishes the sister instead of the brother.

Or real jobs programs, or universal health care, or housing subsidies, let alone pay for a quality education for every student.

Get real. We got photo opps to attend. Interviews. Sunday morning tee vee.

serves Wall Street. Wall Street aims to cash in big time on public education. Wall Street bankrolls grifters like Michelle Rhee to sell "education reform" through corporate media the same way Judith Miller used it to pitch the very profitable Iraq War for them.

A version of this interview appeared in print on February 3, 2013, on page MM12 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Reform School.

In fact quite good.