The United States has plummeted to 21st, 23rd, and 25th among 30 developed nations in science, reading, and math, respectively.
The cause of the decline, say education reformers, is an outmoded bureaucracy that protects the interests of adults—too many administrators doing too little, job guarantees that make it impossible to fire ineffective teachers, automatic pay increases pegged to seniority, and bloated entitlements—while students suffer.
“We have textbook manufacturers, teachers’ unions, and even food vendors that work hard to dictate and determine policy. ... But there is no big organized interest group that defends and promotes the interests of children,” writes former Washington, D.C., School Chancellor Michelle Rhee, in a Newsweek editorial published Dec. 6, 2010.
The editorial ran as part of a coordinated launch that included an appearance on Oprah, who also endorsed Rhee’s organization, StudentsFirst. Its policy agenda is to reform education so students benefit. Rhee founded the group after resigning as chancellor of D.C. schools.
The organization’s first goal is to muster up clout by signing up 1 million members and raising $1 billion dollars in its first year.
Rhee says StudentsFirst is nonpartisan, but definitely political. She plans to endorse and support candidates for elected office and school boards that support her policy agenda, while lobbying for new legislation that supports her priorities.
In the past few weeks Rhee has testified before the Florida state Senate and House Kindergarten–12 Education committees, participated in a roundtable discussion with Moms Unite (a grassroots mom’s group based in Los Angeles, Calif.), spoken as a panelist at UCLA School of Law and appeared on the CBS daytime talk show, “The Talk.”
StudentsFirst claims that 100,000 new members signed up in the first three days after launching its website. As of this week, its Facebook membership sits at 36,088; Twitter, 4,681 followers; and over a hundred grassroots support groups, most of them comprising a single member, have been registered on the StudentsFirst website. Rhee has recently settled with her new husband, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, in California, which has the largest number of members at 291. A select few high-profile supporters are listed.
Oprah threw her weight behind Rhee on national television Dec. 6.
“Today I am using my show as a platform. This is an urgent call for action. ... Somebody needs to fix it. You can do it. I am behind you. We are behind you,” said Oprah.
Comedian, actor, and activist Bill Cosby; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; former Colorado Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien; Florida Gov. Rick Scott; and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have all endorsed StudentsFirst.
In fact, Rhee, a Democrat, has forged an unlikely alliance with conservative Republican governors who may see her reform agenda as a way to break teachers’ unions.
During her three-year tenure as D.C. schools chancellor, Rhee famously waged war with the local and national teacher’s federations, although for her own reasons. Hired by former D.C. Mayor Adrien Fenty and given an extraordinary level of decision-making power by him, Rhee wasted no time in making drastic changes to the system.
While Rhee consistently defends her actions on the basis of their benefiting students, her heavy-handed approach, “my way or the highway” attitude, and the sheer speed of the changes, made teachers’ unions both wary and insecure.
Michelle Rhee’s Achievements & Union Tug-of-War
D.C. Achievements
Despite being among the top funded school districts, Washington, D.C., ranked near the bottom in terms of student performance on standardized exams. For example, only 8 percent of eighth-graders were scoring at grade-level in math.
Rhee believed the problem was directly attributable to ineffective educators and principals, as well as a bloated bureaucracy.
In her first year, she dismissed 241 teachers and put 737 on notice to improve within a year or leave. She removed 36 principals, and according to Rhee, cut the district’s central administration in half.
In 2008, she sought to renegotiate teachers’ compensation. She offered the choice of being paid up to $140,000 based on a measure of “student achievement” in exchange for giving up tenure. The other option was to retain tenure, but earn less.
She sought and gained help from private foundations to fund the performance pay.
In the end, the district shot to the top, leading the nation in fourth and eighth grade reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams. The graduation rate rose, and school enrollment was up for the first time in 40 years.
A Union Tug-of-War
Despite the gains, Rhee’s rapid pace of reform both shocked and frightened teachers, as well as some parents. Her policies became the key issue in Mayor Fenty’s re-election campaign, which he ultimately lost.
Rhee wrote in Newsweek: “I convinced myself the public would see the progress and want it to continue. But now I have no doubt this cost him the election.”
In retrospect, Rhee says she could have done a better job of communicating, of connecting the dots between the hard decisions she was making, which impacted people’s lives in considerable ways, and the end result she believed to be better than the status quo.
Richard Whitmire, who spent months shadowing Rhee while researching for his book on her, says Rhee will never compromise on her core principles, but that perhaps she would benefit from better communication, especially with the media.
“Michelle Rhee infuriated many by saying that only she had the interests of the students in mind, and made it impossible—if you disagreed with her you weren’t for the students. And that drove them crazy,” said Whitmire in a telephone interview with The Epoch Times.
To get an idea of the kind of relationship Rhee has with unions, take the position of Randi Weingarten, president of The American Federation of Teachers, on the launch of StudentsFirst: “We wish Michelle Rhee well and hope she learns, as we have, that promoting education reform through conflict and division will not serve the interests of children and their educational needs.”
There are many people, like the parents of students who went to schools that were shut down, or whose beloved teachers and principals were fired by Rhee, who would like to see Rhee alter her approach, but for now, the straight-talking, “call it like you see it” Rhee continues to attract nationwide media attention, as well as members for her cause.
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