Posted on 01/14/2011 1:02:53 PM PST by markomalley
In her post-D.C. Public Schools career, former Chancellor Michelle Rhee has had no trouble whatsoever attracting attention to her new education reform ventures. And she's been getting the most attention from prominent elected Republicans.
Since leaving DCPS, Rhee has joined the transition team of new Florida Gov. Rick Scott (pictured) and has since agreed to continue on as an "informal adviser" to his administration. On Tuesday, she appeared at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's State of the State address.
"No one in America has been more clear that we must change our public education system," Christie said from the podium. "Michelle, thanks for coming today, and I want you to count New Jersey among those who are finally putting our students first."
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who just left office and is expected to contend for the Republican presidential nomination, has long been a Rhee fan. Yesterday at the National Press Club, he said this, according to MSNBC: "Everyone's waiting for Superman. We had a Superwoman. And her name was Michelle Rhee."
Meanwhile, Rhee's message has been embraced by the favorite media outlets of the conservative movement. She rolled out her policy platform in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and made an appearance on Fox News Channel (in addition to appearances on the Today Show and other less partisan forums). Today, a post on the Heritage Foundation's blog calls on "opponents of sensible education reforms to put the needs of children before the demands of special interests--as Rhee's aptly named group suggests."
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
She was an outstanding school administrator. Fired incompetent teachers and had standards...........
Which is why she had to go! D.C. gets what it deserves.
“Fired incompetent teachers and had standards”
Standards are fine....as long as they only apply to conservatives. /sarc
A Sex, Money And NBA Scandal That Would Be Headlines If The Party Started With An R
Yet another promising player for our already deep bench.
Will the news media start going through her trash?
Scores hardly budged under her administration, and she is up to her ears in sleaze with Kevin Johnson. She does have good press, however, which makes her perfect for the GOP. Image over substance is always a winner with the Rhinocracy.
The model is the mistake. You can’t fix government schools any more than you could “reform” Soviet collective farms. The GOP hasn’t the intelligencve or the courage to tell the truth, so they will substitute fawning over someone like Rhee for sound policy.
Nah. There’s no one human being who can save public schools.
Implenting vouchers would cure most of the problem. Allow free market competition in schools and eliminate the Dept. of Ed. That might make a dent ...but it won’t fix the social ills that plague so many of students’ families today. Or liberalism — at least in the short run.
Most, if not all, of politicians send their children to private schools. They have no clue what goes on in public schools today.
I suspect that the only way to save the schools is to privatize (as in contract out). And to implement school choice, with the money following the child instead of blindly dumped in the school. The latter has absolutely no performance incentive. With the choice option, if a public school utterly fails to compete, it dies. Shut it down. Of course the unions will fight this.
As for scores not budging under Rhee’s administration, I think some of it may be due to inner city culture. Having gone to an engineering school that was next to a joke of an inner city high school is where I base this conclusion. The high school was little more than a day care center for ages 14 and up, plus the infants of the baby mommas. The culture goes back to I suspect the elementary schools, where the attitude of the administration was likely “why bother, the kids are just going to be welfare recipients and in and out of the prison system”. And people in that area were complacent with that, with sadly few exceptions. That city BTW was Newark, NJ. Ken Gibson was mayor at the time, for whom I had high hopes since he was a Newark College of Engineering grad (civil engineering). Yet he was part of a line of Newark mayors who wound up in prison on corruption charges.
Abolishing the Dept of Educ, ending protection for the unions and putting all decision making in the hands of the states is where improvement begins. Any solution that doesn’t kick the fed to the curb is no solution.
I agree - I see that as the only solution. Not everyone needs to go to the same type of school - perhaps some would be tailored to learn a trade, others would be College Prep (way too many people go to College nowadays ... Many of the majors offered are a joke, and prepare the students for nothing).
And if people don't want to go to school, and they just seek to disrupt the other students - then kick them out. This apparently can't happen with the public school system, but a Privatized system would enable the disrupters to be expelled.
I don’t trust her. Her fiancee (is she still engaged?) is a liberal. Just like the wife of Arnold Schwarzeneggar is a liberal Kennedy. She might be another Scharzeneggar for all we know — a supposedly tough-minded conservative who turns into a squishy liberal once in office.
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