Michelle Rhee just getting started on shaping California education policy
Source: Sacramento Bee
Rhee has hired three lobbying firms to represent StudentsFirst in the state Legislature. Her group helped kill an evaluation bill it said was too easy on teachers and shopped around a piece of legislation to change teacher layoff rules that was never introduced.
StudentsFirst also has begun political efforts to take on one of the most powerful forces in state politics: the California Teachers Association. Her group put $2 million into a California campaign committee ahead of the 2012 elections, and two of the three legislative candidates it supported were elected over candidates supported by CTA.
CTA President Dean Vogel said he doesn't feel threatened but is keeping an eye on Rhee as she rolls out her strategy.
"Any time you're gathering up huge amounts of money and hiring huge amounts of staff and moving a particular agenda, you're going to have an effect. What effect that will be is hard to say until it starts to unfold," Vogel said.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/27/5143422/michelle-rhee-just-getting-started.html
The money her group has given legislators is paying off as they introduce bills which she favors. Tennessee is moving quickly. That's where her ex-husband, Kevin Huffman, is in charge of schools.
TN 'parent trigger' bill would allow school takeovers
The "parent trigger" bill was filed Wednesday by Rep. John DeBerry, a Memphis Democrat and member of the House Education Committee. / AP / File
The bill was filed Wednesday by Rep. John DeBerry, a Memphis Democrat and member of the House Education Committee.
It is, in my opinion, important legislation that will get the debate started, DeBerry said Thursday. One thing we cant afford is we cant continue to support the status quo.
"Status Quo"...one of the favorite terms used by reformers to refer to public schools.
DeBerry was supported in his last election by Students First, the national education reform organization founded by Michelle Rhee, but said that support is not related to his bill. Rhee, the ex-wife of Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman, is known for pushing the reform ideals most often associated with Republicans, but recently said she is a lifelong Democrat.
jsr
(7,712 posts)truedelphi
(32,324 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)...CA will never go for her kind of education...
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)ellisonz
(27,709 posts)Californians know the problems their schools aren't because of teachers.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)agenda.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)run her ass out of the state on a rail.
emsimon33
(3,128 posts)I am passing this on to people who have the power in California to put a stop to this.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)He is in support of them. Unfortunately.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Of kids in California's public school system that come from other countries.
They don't know English. In the case of many of the kids from South of the border, they are often not here long enough to learn English - just as they start to make some headway, the INS intervenes, or one or both parents decide that life in Los Angeles or wherever is too hectic and dangerous and they return to their native country.
There needs to be some special way to take this into account. Unfortunately with so many educators thinking that a person can tell everything from test scores, that way of evaluating things might be some years away.
gadjitfreek
(399 posts)actually thinks this way.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)It's politics because of the huge money reformers give politicians.
And by "reformers" you mean privatizers.
Ultimately, the goal has nothing to do with students--first, second, or last.
It has to do with turning the taxpayer money that finances public education into profit for private companies who see kids as commodities.
YvonneCa
(10,117 posts)...for years.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)There are those in the field of education, like Arne Duncan, and then there are educators.
YvonneCa
(10,117 posts)...are fine. And...I agree about Arne...
I come from a district with a huge ELL population. The data already exists...it's been collected for decades. Really. The question is, IMHO, how should it be used ...fairly...to help the students and, at the same time, not be used to punish their teachers?
gadjitfreek
(399 posts)...who I hope would just drop dead of a brain embolism. Michelle Rhee is near the top of my list. She is the Osama Bin Laden of public education.
olddad56
(5,732 posts)That guy has only two items on his agenda. More power for himself and spending public funds on a basketball arena for a team that doesn't even want to be here.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)tiredtoo
(2,949 posts)get run out of town on a rail in D.C. After they found her accepting cheating on test scores and so on ? Why is she even a player in this field anymore ?
reteachinwi
(579 posts)She has money, not credibility. The students pay.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)http://blogs.sacbee.com/report-card/2013/01/new-investigation-puts-cheating-scandal-to-rest-rhee-says.html
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/09/5101508/federal-probe-found-no-test-score.html
The DC Inspector's report also cleared Rhee, and was not kind to D.C.'s teachers.
If Michelle Rhee was involved in cheating, she got away with it.
reteachinwi
(579 posts)isn't a resume' builder.
But we know the Sanford memo is out there. What does it say? Three secondary sources have told us that Sanford was troubled by the widespread erasures. An anonymous letter was mailed to me on June 20, 2012, stating in part, The memo indicated there was cause for concern with a significant number of school test results
.(Sanford) did not draw conclusions, but we all know he suspected cheating was widespread.
http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6108
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Just what we need education to be about.
"Sanfords undated agreement says he will be paid $85 per hour for work performed at his offices in California (his company is called Eduneering) and $1500 per day for work performed at DCPS, plus reimbursement for travel, food and lodging."
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)one state at a time.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Unfortunately.
YvonneCa
(10,117 posts)...you are back at DU..
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)It means many people are reading it and caring that such a person has so much control over education.
I believe a Democratic leader needs to stand up and ask loudly who gave Rhee the right to do such harm.
markpkessinger
(8,381 posts). . . making sure all California students as well as their parents know how to spell "snake oil": s-n-a-k-e o-i-l.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)And so very true.