Remember "Educational crusader" Michell Rhee? whatever happened to her:

[Gabi Hayes]

https://dianeravitch.net/category/rhee-michelle/

The world of rightwing corporate reform is ever-changing. It seems like only yesterday that Michelle Rhee announced her intention to challenge teachers’ unions, destroy tenure, and take away due process from teachers across the nation. She said she would raise $1 billion in a year and gather 1 million members for her new organization, which she called StudentsFirst, because (she said) teachers don’t care about students, only billionaires really care.

She did raise some money–only $7 million or so, far from $1 billion–and she spent it trying to elect Tea Party Republicans and others who support charters and vouchers. Her organization turned into the public voice of anti-teacher, anti-public school activism. But in 2014, she stepped back from the national stage to help her husband Kevin Johnson, the Mayor of Sacramento (whom she married in 2011), and joined the board of Scott’s Miracle-Gro. She also assumed the chairmanship of her husband’s charter chain, St. Hope.

so if you have any of that miracle gro poison shit....get rid of it, and buy something else

Obama chose Arne Duncan when he could have had Ravitch; what a tragedy

And now we learn that Michelle Rhee is folding the tents of StudentsFirst and merging it with 50CAN. The latter organization is funded by hedge fund managers and the Sackler family of Connecticut, whose fortune was made from pharmaceuticals, specifically the opiod drug Oxycontin, that is now causing so much addiction and death across the nation.

Forbes says they are the 16th richest family in America. Jonathan Sackler’s daughter Madeleine made a documentary about Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter chain called “The Lottery.” It gave viewers the impression that these were the world’s most magical schools, and any child lucky enough to win the lottery would have a blessed life. Never having attended a public school, she bought into the myth that they are horrid places that one must escape from, and that charter schools are sort of like the private school she attended in Greenwich.

excuse me while I go and violently vomit

[lindysalsagal]

1. So, basically: Fertilizer, hedge funds, oxycotin.

Sounds about right. May she rot in hell.

[LisaM]

2. Just a scam artist..

From one con to another.

[LeftyMom]

3. Her kid fucking slumlord husband is finally losing his job so hopefully she'll GTFO of my town.

I should add some local info:

1. KJ's scam was to buy up a ton of North Oak Park (a mostly black neighborhood with a very convenient location full of really great Craftsman houses)

2. and then take over the local high school and "turn it around" by getting rid of most of the black kids and replacing them with Asian kids who test better. While this was going on he was also fucking students. Rhee was his henchperson in covering this up.

3. With fewer teenagers around and uniforms on the ones who remained it was easier to sell the neighborhood to gentrifiers.

4. Once elected mayor police resources were shifted to the Mayor's holdings in "The Triangle" (all good gentrifications need a rebranding) at the expense of the rest of Oak Park.

5. The adjoining (extremely wealthy, extremely white) neighborhood of East Sacramento makes occasional noises that they'd sure like a local public high school, Sac High is underutilized, and it wouldn't kill the kids in Oak Park to take a long city bus ride to a already overcrowded high school, would it? They'll get their way eventually because money always does.

[burrowowl]

4. Yes!?

Why?

[Tanuki]

5. She has kids in Nashville from her first marriage and was a high -profile disruptor/lobbyist here,

pushing for vouchers and charter schools. Good riddance, but she is obviously still very involved behind the scenes. Oh, and fuck Miracle Grow. Thanks for the tip. I always appreciate more information about which products not to buy!

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2014/08/14/michelle-rhees-exit-slow-studentsfirst-tennessee/14056229/

"11:37 a.m. CDT August 14, 2014

Its high-profile, much-debated leader is stepping back to a smaller role, but StudentsFirst has no plans to leave Tennessee.
In fact, the education reform organization founded and led by former Washington, D.C., Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee says its work in Tennessee will only pick up ahead of the next legislative session.

Rhee, in a blog post Wednesday regarding her future with the group, said it’s “time for a shift in the day-to-day management of the team and our advocacy work.” That came after the Huffington Post reported Rhee is prepared to step down as CEO of Sacramento, Calif.-based StudentsFirst but will still serve on its board of directors.
Last month, a report surfaced that Students­First, which has activated lobbyists and political action committees across the nation, would be ending its work in five states.

Tennessee, though, won’t be added to that list, leaders of StudentsFirst Tennessee say.
“We have absolutely no intention of slowing down our work in Tennessee,” said Ross McMullin, regional press secretary for StudentsFirst. “In fact, it’s one of the states where we’re focusing our resources and anticipate we’ll pick up steam.
“Tennessee’s been one our most active states. We’re 100 percent laser-focused on pushing an aggressive and robust set of policies next legislative session.”

Rhee said the next step in her life would be focused on family and supporting her husband, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. Rhee, previously married to Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman, routinely visits Nashville, where she has two children.

StudentsFirst’s Tennessee PAC spent $188,496 on contributions to candidates and other campaign activities prior to last week’s election, according to the group’s financial disclosure. Most of that went to Republican lawmakers and campaign mail pieces, but the group gave $3,000 apiece to four Metro school board candidates: Mary Pierce and Tyese Hunter, who won their races, and Bernie Driscoll and Rhonda Dixon, who lost.

The group registered eight lobbyists, including Rhee, with the Tennessee legislature last year, according to the Tennessee Ethics Commission.
Among items the group has pushed: a new state law, which passed, allowing the State Board of Education to approve charter school applications; a school voucher system, which stalled again; and a more expansive “parent trigger” law. That proposal, which also failed, would have let parents bring in a charter organization to run a failing school if more than 50 percent of the parents at the school sign a petition.

StudentsFirst’s annual report card gave Tennessee an F last year for school choice. The group also has carved out a reputation for taking on teachers unions."