Posted on 10/14/2010 9:26:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Now it’s official: Michelle Rhee today announced her resignation as chancellor of the D.C. public schools.
It was expected, of course, after her patron, Mayor Fenty, lost the Democratic primary a few weeks ago. A schools chancellor needs the strong backing of the mayor — especially if she’s a chancellor who wants to make a difference. Ms. Rhee realized the backing for what she was doing — sacking bad teachers, expanding options for parents, measuring student achievement — was not going to be forthcoming from the presumptive mayor-to-be, Vincent Gray.
Ironically Rhee’s departure comes on the heels of the release of Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman, an indictment of our failing public schools, in which Rhee is one of the heroes. Mr. Guggenheim, the filmmaker who gave us Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, told me that a Rhee departure would be like “turning out the lights during heart surgery.”
This is a huge blow for D.C. schoolchildren, who last year watched as Dick Durbin killed off a popular voucher program. But I wonder. Depending what Rhee does next, it could be that being squeezed out of D.C. may do more for the cause nationally than her staying. At least it has focused national attention on the problem with big-city public education today: The Empire Always Strikes Back.
“Now it’s official: Michelle Rhee today announced her resignation as chancellor of the D.C. public schools. “
Governor Christie to the white phone please.
If I had to educate my two kids again, they would never get near a GOVERNMENT so-called school run by extortionist liberal unions.
The dim bulbs in DC deserve exactly what they get. They refused to re-elect a decent mayor because he wasn’t a race baiter, and because he tried to hire people based on their competence not their race. Instead DC voters went for someone who is a champion race baiter, and who also went out of his way to pander to gays. Michelle Rhee, who was doing amazing things considering how little she had to work with, is gone. They get to continue to bitch about the fifth-rate education their children are getting, and to blame it on racism. Home rule is a total and utter failure. The people in DC are not qualified to elect their own trash collectors (and my prediction is the trash collection service will return to its former, abysmal, Marion Berry level.)
I thought he wanted someone less high profile, IIRC, from an interview I saw on television where she was suggested.
I heard the President of the Teacher's Union that represents D.C. praising the virtues of the interim Superintendent of Schools. what struck me was the term "sensitivity to the community" that he used multiple times. I guess that's race baiter code for being black, which I believe Ms. Rhee is not. Black versus Asian racism wins again...
Yes, this was one of the the grudges they held against her: she isn’t black. Also, she is articulate.
Schools should be run for the benefit of the students, not the benefit of the teachers. If the public in the District of Columbia vote for failing schools, they can have failing schools. Just don’t look elsewhere for a bailout.
If she is good for the kids; Gov Christie should snap her up. We will take her here in TX.
Hmmm. Does the governor read FR? You have some followrs, my FRiend...
Nahh... It was just common sense. Who is the best person for a reformer to hire for his education secretary? A reformer and Rhee is the best one in the country.
But in case he is a follower, Governor, great move on the tunnel. Can you please now renegotiate the unions pension bennies? Hopefully they will strike and you can fire them all and outsource it to a private company. I would be more than happy to take it over.
Regards
EQ
In any case, kudos on your picking the come...
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