Michelle Rhee, who made the cover of Time magazine two years ago, tops the list of 18 people named to Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s new “Champions for Achievement” team.
Rhee, the controversial former chancellor of Washington, D.C. schools, was tapped by Scott to head an education team to form a “new education system for a new economy.”
You can read colleagues Denise-Marie Balona and Lauren Roth’s story on Rhee’s new Florida post here.
Rhee’s appointment tonight made national news and spurred talk about whether Scott, a Republican about to take his first elected office, wants Rhee to be Florida’s next education commissioner.
It’s the State Board of Education that actually hires the commissioner — and members have seemed quite pleased with current Commissioner Eric Smith. But the governor appoints State Board members, and Scott will have three appointments to make on the seven-member board when he takes office. Plus, it’s fair to assume the Governor could have sway over the other board members, too, all of whom are Republican appointees.
Rhee told ABC News she was happy to serve on Scott’s team but offered little about what she might do.
“I am happy to be of service to Governor Elect Scott and the state of Florida,” Rhee said in a statement to ABC News. “When it comes to improving our schools for our children, I will work with Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and people who have general interest in making schools great for our children.”
Rhee made the cover of TIME in late 2008 in a story titled, “How to Fix America’s Schools.” The headline went on to say of Rhee: “Her battle against bad teachers had earned her admirers and enemies — and could transform public education. ”
But Rhee’s tenure in D.C. last just three years and her reform efforts were very controversial.
Only good news is this may spiral into disaster faster than we thought, meaning the inevitable reversal the coming policies will be sooner. Wouldn’t want to be a parent w/ kids early in the system at this point.
Posted by: hstorm | Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 10:13 PM
Good point hstorm, but frankly I’m scared sh1tless.
Posted by: ocps teacher | Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 11:01 PM
Yeah, that about sums it up. Looks like we get to play the professional equivalent of Russian roulette….
Posted by: hstorm | Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 11:18 PM
Rhee sparked controversy because she actually required teachers to do their job, and she was rightfully unforgiving in her assessments.
Good for her. I say bravo to someone who finally stood up to the insanity of the teacher unions who force teachers upon the school system regardless of their inadequacies, closed schools that needed to be closed long ago, and actually put education first before bureaucracy.
What a shame that posters such as the above would much rather believe mindlessly that the current status quo is correct. I am sure they are of the same mind that pumps money into a broken system rather than actually fixing it.
Rhee, if anyone bothers to actually listen, will build a system that works, while decimating the parts that do not work. Sort of like cutting a disease out of a body to make it healthy again.
Posted by: Face Facts | Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 11:54 PM
Well said Face Facts. An impressive appointment by Scott, especially if he can get her to serve as Education Commissioner. Maybe we won’t have “politics” as usual and someone will actually fix what’s broken.
Posted by: FLCRACKER | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 6:13 AM
Speaking of believing mindlessly: if you can explain what is broken (other than you don’t want to pay for ed.) and exactly how these policies get us from point A to point B to “fix” FL’s problems, you’ll be the first. All we usually hear is a bunch of empty rhetoric about “unions” that don’t exist and teachers are lazy – nothing of substance or specificity.
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Keep in mind that some of these exact same politicians have declared 95% of the districts excellent and lauded how much we’ve improved (8th in the nation is their favorite figure).
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- If we have come so far, what crisis are students enduring?
- Are the district grades/#8 ranking false propaganda or are the current “problems” actually the false hype?
- So specifically, what exactly is the disease?
- What is your vision of success for students?
- Give me practical ways any of Rhee/Scott/Levesque’s policies improve things (not just theoretical mumbo jumbo – how will it work?).
- How do we accurately assess since you mentioned it?
-And which schools need to be closed since you cited that as an important feather in Rhee’s cap (and apparently her only qualification to you as you weren’t able to cite any other specifics in her favor)?
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Good luck, as no one has been able to answer these questions yet. Until they do I’ll stick with what it looks like —- an attempt to reduce costs of education without having to stand up for that conviction and face any political consequences.
Posted by: hstorm | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 7:12 AM
Brilliant move by the new gov to hire Michelle Rhee, I am encouraged that he will know what he is doing…
Posted by: courtneymilford | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 8:14 AM
Rhee admitted that she taped shut the mouths of her students because she could not control their talking while working as a Teacher for America teacher. She then laughed about taping her students mouths shut with masking tape. She tried the tape method after she was unable to keep the little ones from making noise when she marched them through the hallways to lunch. Rhee laughed about when the tape was removed hurting the children and some even started to bleed.
What’s the statute of limitations on this?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/13/VI2010081305444.html
Posted by: Coach | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 8:27 AM
Hstorm –
Rhee is famous for digging into what is wrong. I cannot say the specifics unless you give me her job, let me crawl under the bureaucracy, examine teachers files, administration files, etc.
The fact is, as a teacher, I can state that there are many colleagues who do not now and never have belonged in the classroom. They not only have a poor grasp on how to educate, they have no skills to do so whatsoever. Overhaul, rather than mindless continuation is what I was referring to.
In recent years in Orange County there was an attempt to close needless schools for budgetary reasons. That failed due to the administrations ongoing pandering to screaming parents and community groups, rather than adhering to sound economic and educational choices. For God’s sake, millions of dollars were lost and lives put into an uproar because a high school student started a “movement” when they did not like a time change. Was the administration listening to what was right and what would work, or were they terrified of public dissatisfaction?
If Rhee is allowed to do what she has attempted to do elsewhere, she will close down schools that are leeching from the system, she will get rid of teachers who do not adhere to the standards needed, etc. That is what is sorely lacking, and that lack of oversight, that ongoing status quo, that pandering from a bloated system – is the tip of the disease I speak of.
As educational dollars shrink, it is that paring down and brave streamlining that is desperately needed.
Posted by: Face Facts | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 8:30 AM
Problem is you are still giving philosophical generalities. Look at her DC policies beyond the closing of schools, and I can’t see how such policies will work here.
I agree that reform is a good thing, and needed. I just don’t see any consistent, pragmatic plans that actually take into account the realities (both economic and in regard to the conflicts of interest that seem to be guiding our legislature) of our situation. “Teacher” as the entire problem is too simplstic – though politically expedient.
Posted by: hstorm | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 8:59 AM
Again Hstorm, give me the job and I can give you more than philisophical generalities – and that is exactly what has been given to Rhee. It is her job now to go from those very strong philisophical generalities and make suggestions/cuts/advisements.
And the problem is simplistic unfortunately – just no one wants to face it. Cut budgets and make them efficient, not inflated. Make unwelcome but correct changes. Cut deadweight both on the administrative and on the educational level. Actually allow education to occur. Without regards to pandering to either parents, public opinion, or legislative bodies.
How purely simple is that?
Has it ever been done? No. Why? No one wants a dirty job, and Rhee is more than willing to take that on.
When she is in office these “generalities” will become specific – that is her job not yours or mine. That is why she is joining this team. Her strengths are well known – disliked – but well known.
Posted by: Face Facts | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Hope you are right. The tough calls are never made because it is politically unappealing, so it will be interesting to see how far Rhee/Scott are willing to go.
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Unfortunately I think the legislature is of a different mindset and we’ll get the teacher-centric scapegoating elements and continued funneling of $$ to testing services at this inappropriate juncture, rather than the unwelcome and correct changes and cutting of dead weight you say Rhee/Scott may be interesting in pursuing.
Posted by: hstorm | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 9:30 AM
Let’s face the real reality….. Our OCPS community adult population is very generously semi-literate.
If we don’t know how can we expect our children to?
We need a NEW order of leadership that is unafraid to ask the public why they feel that education stops the day they leave school.
How many adults know what their shortcomings are but fail to do anything to correct their shortfalls?
Simply by upgrading our own educational efforts our schools will improve, even with shoddy facilities and poorly performing teachers.
We need to build real schools, not these sprawling monstrosities that we have.
Our ES teachers need to upgrade their own knowledge so that they can give real references to the application of what they are teaching.
I would hazard a guess that our Orange County adults could not pass an eighth grade math test.
The reasons for this are manifold but surely aren’t aided when we pass policies foe parental involvement when we really should be making policies that encourage ADULT involvement in our schools.
Rhee attacked institutional targets in Washington DC, a major error on her part.
Why? Because simply that was all that was within her purview of authority.
The Wash, DC school’s parent population is one of the least literate in the nation and she did nothing to highlight this nor anything to begin remedying it.
I suggest you all read the current book Game Change and then ask yourself if we want politicians making policy or running our schools.
Posted by: GreGG | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 10:47 AM
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/educational-leadership/michelle-rhee-and-florida.html
Posted by: steve | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 2:16 PM
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/dc-schools/rhees-legacy-point-by-point.html
Posted by: steve | Friday, December 3, 2010 at 2:46 PM
Thanks for the link steve.
“They were, for example, supposed to show that they could tailor instruction to at least three ’learning styles,’ demonstrate that they were instilling student belief in success through “affirmation chants, poems and cheers,” and a lot more. It was so nutty to think that any teacher would show all 22 elements in 30 minutes that officials modified it.”
That’s just idiotic. Not sure what parents I’ve ever encountered would look at that and prefer that scheme to what happens in my class now. It’s window dressing of zero substance. The kind of stuff that has a short shelf life (which may explain the brief stint in DC despite the national rep.).
Really need to get a few people that actually deal with students on a daily basis on these committees. The conspicuous absence of which (in concert with the above) is the kind of stuff that reinforces the perception that there is more ideology than education here.
Would like to find a source showing the specific headway she made in reforming the administrative/bureaucratic ranks. Most cite her rattling cages but there are no specific outcomes. Thanks to anyone who can toss out a link to such.