Famed educator rumored as next state schools chief - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com

Posted on Thursday, 12.02.10

EDUCATION

Famed educator rumored as next state schools chief

A nationally renowned educator agreed to help Gov.-elect Rick Scott shape Florida's policies, leading many to speculate she'd be interested in the state's top schools job.

File Photo- July 17, 2008 Washington Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Education and Labor Committee.

SUSAN WALSH / STF

BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY

KMCGRORY@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Controversial education reformer Michelle Rhee was named to Gov.-elect Rick Scott's education transition team Thursday, fueling rumors that she may become Florida's next education commissioner.

Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. school district, is perhaps the most recognizable educator in the country. She has been featured on the cover of Time magazine and played a prominent role in this year's documentary Waiting for Superman.

Scott spokesman Brian Burgess said Rhee will serve in ``an advisory capacity during the transition phase.'' But, he added, ``[Scott] definitely wants her to stick around.''

While Rhee was just one of 18 people appointed to the education transition team late Thursday, it is her name that appears first on the list.

Rumors have swirled for weeks that Scott and Rhee were discussing the state's top education job.

Scott cannot directly appoint a new education commissioner; that must be done by the seven-member state Board of Education.

But the governor appoints members to that board. And Scott gets to make three appointments early next year.

The governor-elect is also expected to have the support of sitting board member Kathleen Shanahan, who agreed to serve on one of Scott's other transition teams in early November.

Whether Rhee, 40, would take a job in Tallahassee remains unknown. She is engaged to Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player who is now mayor Sacramento, Calif.

``She's exploring all her options and hasn't made any decisions,'' Rhee spokeswoman Emily Lenzner said.

A graduate of Cornell and Harvard and an alumna of the Teach for America program, Rhee began her tenure in D.C. three years ago. She ignited controversy by closing two dozen under-enrolled schools and firing hundreds of teachers who had received poor evaluations.

Rhee later clashed with teachers' unions when she proposed sweeping changes to teacher compensation. The union went on to block a plan that would have paid teachers up to $140,000 in exchange for giving up tenure.

Though Rhee was unpopular in D.C., she became a darling in education circles nationwide, winning praise from President Barack Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Rhee resigned in October after D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty lost the Democratic primary, jeopardizing her job.

She and Scott see eye to eye on a handful of education issues. Both support charter schools and merit pay for teachers.

``I am happy to be of service to Gov.-elect Scott and the state of Florida,'' Rhee said in a statement issued late Thursday. ``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.''

Burgess, the Scott spokesman, called Rhee ``an expert on the subject matter.''

As for the possibility of Rhee becoming education commissioner, Burgess said: ``It's no secret that a lot of folks from a lot of different states would love to have her. Florida is no different and Gov. Scott is no different.''

Not all state Board of Education members want a change in commissioner.

Under the tenure of current Education Commissioner Eric Smith, Florida has enhanced its data systems and made steady improvement in its graduation rate. Smith also helped the state secure Race to the Top dollars on a second attempt.

But Smith came under fire this summer when the NCS-Pearson assessment company fell weeks behind in releasing student scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests.

Board member Roberto Martinez spoke highly of Smith.

``I wouldn't change Eric Smith right now for anybody,'' Martinez said, noting that Smith has pushed for strong reforms.

Board member John Padget also praised the commissioner.

``I am pleased with the job that the commissioner has done and continues to do,'' said Padget, a former Monroe County superintendent. ``But we are a board. I will see what my colleagues would like to do.''

Smith did not reply to a request from The Miami Herald for comment late Thursday.

Scott has said his education transition team will look to ideas from the private sector to make public education more efficient and effective. The group will also look for cost-saving strategies and measures that will improve the quality of teaching.

Other members of the team include newly elected Miami-Dade School Board member Carlos Curbelo and Patricia Levesque, executive director of former Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future.

Miami Herald staff writer Nirvi Shah contributed to this report.

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AnnetteAntonieta 1 day ago
Look out! Here comes the woman with all the answers and all the pink slips for teachers who have been in the trenches for longer than she has had her ivory league degrees. I'm guessing she has never taught inner city children who don't get breakfast or learning disabled students with processing deficiencies. Children in Florida come from diverse soci-economic backrounds and there is NOTHING anyone can do about that. Not even Rhee. Private schools do not enjoy any secret formula except everyone pays, which means a more homogeneous population from the start, mediocre, but similar all the same. Jeb Bush RUINED public schools with his ridiculous ideas and elitist metality. Public schools have always been the pathway to upward mobility, but Republicans hate that.
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cotesud8 1 day ago
She applied tape to kids mouths during her teaching stint

"Rhee had poor class management skills, she said, recalling that her class "was very well known in the school because you could hear them traveling anywhere because they were so out of control." On one particularly rowdy day, she said she decided to place little pieces of masking tape on their lips for the trip to the school cafeteria for lunch.

"OK kids, we're going to do something special today!" she said she told them.

Rhee said it worked well until they actually arrived at the cafeteria. "I was like, 'OK, take the tape off. I realized I had not told the kids to lick their lips beforehand...The skin is coming off their lips and they're bleeding. Thirty-five kids were crying."

There ya go. Since Jeb Bush's kids and wife are losers (the boy couldnt hack it as a student teacher, the daughter a drug-addict and the wife a thief going on shopping sprees and not declaring at Atlanta airport) maybe if they had actually gone to public school instead of almost failing out of Gulliver at least they would have morals
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reader08 1 day ago
We'll see.

Tired of all the lip service given for years to improving our education system while continuing to under-fund it.

Teachers are an easy target for too many people critical of the way things are, but the truth of the matter is that the good ones (of which there are many, more than the public thinks- or is willing to admit) are seriously underpaid.

What I remember from my time in the system is that too many folks whose primary strength is crossing all the 't's and dotting all the 'i's, who are sorely lacking in vision, creativity, and just plain common sense seem to rise through the system, and become policy-setters. Not good. Nor is privatization of a public institution the way to go. We can't run our schools on the same principles as a for-profit enterprise. What do we do- fire the under-acheiving students? Jettison those aspects of the "business" which aren't money-makers? Come on.

The real solution is an integrated approach involving students, parents, and a well-compensated professional staff. The key is motivating all three components to give of themselves, instill a shared feeling of a community, striving (rather than indifferently slouching) toward the goal of the students acquiring the tools they need to be successful. It means everyone needs to stop accepting the mediocrity of the status quo: Young folks need to put down their video controls and switch from snickering at YouTube videos of surfing poodles to exploring things on the net which ignite their imaginations and challenge their minds. Parents need to engage their children, and take an active role in their development. Those teachers and administrators who are resigned to fighting a losing battle need to be made to feel they're not alone, and it's not a hopeless struggle, but an attainable dream.

The tax-paying public needs to understand that quality education has its cost, that the price of pouring generation after generation of uneducated listless graduates or dropouts into the world is higher still. We must all be convinced that the money will not be misspent.

If Michelle Rhee can be the catalyst for all this, great. Regardless, we can all do better.
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Donna 1 day ago
Ms. Rhee knows all about incompetent teachers. She was one. She told the story herself about taping the mouths of her second grade students and when they took the tape off they were bleeding and crying. Check out the Washington Post article. Now she gets to bring her incompetence to add to Rick Scott's incompetence and criminal ways and destroy public education in Florida. Jeb Bush will be so proud.
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RJT 23 hours ago
I taught in the public school system and college system for over 30 years and the things I read about this woman getting away with would have resulted in the termination of most educators. I agree there are quite a number of people in education that should be removed, but when compared to our current crop of politicians in charge of making such decisions the number is minuscule. I possess three masters’ degrees and a doctorate degree all with honors as well as being a published author on a book on high school mathematics so throwing these Harvard, and other types of credential’s and calling her famed mean little to me. It appears this is just another hatchet thrower who moves from government job to government job under the name as a reformer.
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Total 23 hours ago
If she did such a bang up job and reformed the D.C. schools to such great levels then why did her daughter attend a private school there?
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timberlan 23 hours ago
Governmental degrees not educational...In addition, she went to private schools throughout her school years. Was in a panic to get out of teaching and become an administrator telling others how to do what she could not in the classroom.

Rhee's parents, Shang and Inza Rhee, immigrated to the United States from South Korea in the 1960s. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rhee was raised in the Toledo, Ohio metropolitan area, where she graduated from Maumee Valley Country Day School in 1988. She graduated from Cornell University in 1992 with a B.A. degree in government, and earned a M.P.P.(Masters in Public Policy) degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
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