Michelle Rhee fights unions and tenure in Ohio. Also in TN and FL

[madfloridian]

She is just all over the place fighting unions and tenure, and pushing the agenda of the tea party governors....and our Democrats are not saying a word.

Michelle Rhee launches campaign to 'Save Great Teachers' in Ohio


StudentsFirst CEO Rhee to speak to Cleveland City Club Thursday.
Photo: Getty Images

Michelle A. Rhee, the outspoken and controversial education advocate who closed schools, fired teachers and took on administrators in an unprecedented way as the former Chancellor of schools for Washington D.C., has launched a call to "Save Great Teachers" in Ohio in advance of her appearance Thursday at the City Club of Cleveland.

..."For Ohio, Rhee says at least 160,000 teachers face layoffs and warns that most layoffs will be based solely on seniority, not on performance. The result, she says, will be that "many of our most effective teachers will lose their jobs...Even if there have to be layoffs, we can save great teachers."

Rhee has also been working with Rick Scott in Florida, trying to fire 8% of Florida's teachers. She has also been in TN fighting teachers' unions with the help of her ex-husband, Kevin Huffman. He is the new state Education Commissioner.

Michelle Rhee, the controversial former superintendent of Washington public schools, is out to raise $1 billion to counteract the voice of teacher unions.

She spoke Thursday at the Economic Club of Memphis as CEO of Students First, the nonprofit organization she founded after stepping down as D.C. school chief last fall.

"We wanted a nationally recognized speaker to discuss education topics since our community has such a critical vote next week," said club spokeswoman Beth Flanagan.

Rhee, the former wife of new Tennessee Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman, believes in collective bargaining to a point, has little use for seniority or tenure and is out to make sure a group with heft equal to that of "the union bosses" is shaping policy that affects children's lives.

Who knows where she will go next. Wherever she is needed, I guess.

One billion to fight teachers' unions. Not one penny from our party to help us fight.

How sad.

[MichiganVote]

1. Oh how helpful. The Palin of Education reports for duty with her mouth full of teeth.

Let's see, run for political office, then book, then scandal, then Fox snooze. Millions of dollars later---priceless.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. The Palin of Education!

:rofl:

[SoapBox]

31. OT but...speaking of Palin...I just got BANNED from Huffington Post for...

asking them repeatedly, why they consistently have 3, 4, 5, 6 stories about Palin
or her family on the front page.

I FINALLY got a response back from some woman (I asked why I was banned) and she
said that I appeared to have a "thing" against Palin and the Right (duh!) and
that they were tired of my attempts (ALL Palin articles are fully moderated...you cannot
post one single word in a Palin story without it going to a moderator) to question
why Huffington Post has so many stories about Palin.

SO...someone at HP is ticked off because I had been questioning why they
put up so many articles about her?

Wow. That's all I can say. I can only assume that there is either one or several
people there that actually support her and want her promoted for free on the site.
There is also the aspect that management feels that she is such a lightening rod
for readers that they use her to attract people?

Go figure.

And you know what they say...You get good "customer service" and you usually don't tell many...Get BAD "customer service" and you tell everyone. THAT is exactly what I plan to do.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. You should make this an OP

Too many DUers love HuffPo. I've never understood that.

[SoapBox]

48. Hmmm...thank you for the thought.

I will NEVER look at Huff Post again.

[Teaser]

24. "mouth full of teeth"

what, exactly, does that mean?

[BobbyBoring]

49. Look at the picture

n/t

[Bozita]

2. She was here in Michigan recently, sharing her wisdom with the GOPers in Lansing

I'm sure if we privatize our schools, all of our graduates will be attending Harvard.

[madfloridian]

10. Here you go. "Rock Star" Rhee in Michigan.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/03/michelle_rhee_michigan_lawmake.html

"Rhee, a 'rock star' of the reform movement, has appeared on magazine covers and in the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” and is criticized by union leaders who say her reforms are too dependent on firing teachers and principals.

With an overflow crowd in the state Capitol, Rhee was asked about her experiences with issues including merit pay, evaluations, parental involvement and rules the require the most recently hired teachers to be the first laid off.

The founder of a school policy group studentsfirst.org, Rhee said she was encouraged lawmakers are considering bills to recast the tenure system, which she said “will be incredibly difficult politically,” but will keep better teachers in schools, not just the ones serving the longest.

“I love teachers – effective teachers,” she said earlier in the day, addressing a smaller group of lawmakers and educators including Grand Rapids Superintendent Bernard Taylor. “No one has a harder job than an inner-city teacher. There is nothing more noble than working as a teacher.

“But if you raise some of these issues you are labeled 'anti-teacher' or a 'union-buster.' I'm not a union buster. But teachers have a very effective organization lobbying on their behalf. I want to be effective representing the other side, out children.”

Yeh, Michelle...you are very anti-teacher and you are indeed a union buster.

[OrwellwasRight]

21. "I want to be effective representing the other side, out children."

Says it all. It's teachers vs. children? Really? I bet she was a GREAT teacher herself with that attitude.

[NICO9000]

41. "Won't somebody think of the CHILDREN???"

Why not, indeed? It definitely ain't Rhee and her cronies.

[Snoutport]

3. She is a very bad person.

America, every single state that brings this lady in should be barraged with letters. Who do we write to in Ohio MadFlo? I'll put pen to paper to stop this woman!

[Angry Dragon]

4. She is just a loud mouth b**** with no credibility

[HockeyMom]

5. One problem in Florida

Is the class size reduction that was written into the Florida State Consitutio by a public vote. They tried to repeal it last year but it failed. So if they intend to fire thousands of teachers, the outcome of that will be larger class sizes and in violation of the state constitution. Millions of dollars in fines to a school district in violation.

So how do they propose to get around this? The PEOPLE voted for this, in effect, TWICE.

[madfloridian]

9. Send them to charters? Or give them vouchers?

Just guessing.

[Fuddnik]

18. "When you're a criminal state, the law doesn't matter". Noam Chomsky

He put it better than I could.

[Ikonoklast]

6. She'e just like every school administrator Cleveland has had for the last thirty years.

If they weren't outright crooks, they were frauds.

One of the reasons Cleveland schools are a total and complete failure.

[Doremus]

7. I never realized there were so many evil people.

Not misguided.
Not well-meaning.
Not ill-advised.

Just plain old in-your-face stuff-it-if-you-don't-like-it EVIL. People with criminal minds who aren't only NOT afraid to use them, but thrilled at the thought.

I just never knew so many of them existed. :(

[glinda]

8. Republican dole.

[pinkkillersheep]

11. So what should happen (if anything) with the concept of tenure?

[madfloridian]

12. Well, now, hmmm, what do you think?

""As for pension and health-care envy, it is a sad thing when working Americans complain that someone else has benefits, instead of agreeing that everyone should have coverage for their health and old age. It reminds me of an old Soviet joke where a peasant says, "My neighbor has a cow and I have none, I want his cow to die." We should not join in this race to the bottom."

-Diane Ravitch"

[pinkkillersheep]

13. Can you clarify your position?

Education isn't my strong suit, so I'm just asking out of a genuine desire for information and opinions. Are there any good studies on the effect of tenure on the quality of teachers in a district?

Edited because it originally came off as more snarky than I intended.

[madfloridian]

15. Why would an admin or district put a poor teacher on tenure?

If you can answer that question, the rest falls into place.

Unfortunately Bill Gates and his ilk can pay to put out their anti-union, anti-tenure message. Teachers are barely avoiding layoffs, and no one speaks for us.

Tenure is a non-issue dreamed up by education "reformers" who want cheap non-union teachers.

[pinkkillersheep]

16. Good question

Don't mind me. I'm still rooting out all of the commonly accepted propaganda that we get bashed over the head with everyday.

[BobbyBoring]

50. As I understand it

Getting rid of tenured teachers and replacing them with "cheap non-union teachers" is the focus of TFA.

[chervilant]

29. Wow...

I suggest you look at countries where teachers are valued and their unions are strong. Take, for instance, Finland: strong teachers unions + strong support for teachers = students with the highest scores in math and science.

What really gets me is how FEW people in the US have a CLUE what's happening to our system of public education, and how MANY are willfully ignorant. I hope you are sincerely making an effort to find out about the corporatists' continued assault on teachers and unions. Furthermore, I hope you will write letters, emails, and blogs--and do whatever is necessary to protest this evil assault on the hoi polloi.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. It should be given to every worker in America

That's what should happen.

Tenure is merely due process. It's a right every worker should have.

[madfloridian]

27. Well said.

[gadjitfreek]

14. I Am A Teacher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rgk730Z1x8

People like Rhee are worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. They talk out of their ass. These people want to privatize prisons (look how that has gone) and education (hasn't gone much better) to further loot the middle class.

[Fuddnik]

17. Are we sure that's not really Michelle Malkin?

She acts like it.

[Teaser]

25. "all those asians look alike"

huh?

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. "Acts like"

[Fuddnik]

36. Maybe both of their names are spelled M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E.

Somehow, Adolf Hitler wouldn't work.:rofl:

[Starry Messenger]

19. She's like the Phyllis Schafly of anti-unionism

[Dawson Leery]

20. Michelle Malkin....I mean, Rhee was a failed teacher

who decided to accept $$$$$$$$ to sell the latest Wall Street scam of education "reform".

[Teaser]

26. again with Malkin

seriously, I get you don't like Rhee. Cool. Why are you comparing her to Malkin, and not Coulter, or any other RWer?

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. Because Malkin sucks?

[Fuddnik]

42. They're both assholes named Michelle?

[chervilant]

28. Sigh...

I am sooooo sick of seeing this woman's smug, intransigent face! Hasn't ANYONE gotten a clue about how wrong she is?! What about all the lies she's told?!?

If Rhee succeeds with her corporatist agenda, our precious children are doomed.

[chervilant]

30. Oh, and,

one other thing: I have friends here and overseas who've been asking me to explore the possibility of teaching in Australia or Canada. I wonder just how many excellent teachers are considering that option. I know that I am.

[Reader Rabbit]

35. Narcissistic Personality Disorder

The serial bully displays behaviour congruent with many of the diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Characterised by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity and self-importance, need for admiration, and lack of empathy, people with narcissistic personality disorder overestimate their abilities and inflate their accomplishments, often appearing boastful and pretentious, whilst correspondingly underestimating and devaluing the achievements and accomplishments of others.

Often the narcissist will fraudulently claim to have qualifications or experience or affiliations or associations which they don't have or aren't entitled to.

Narcissists react angrily to criticism and when rejected, the narcissist will often denounce the profession which has rejected them (usually for lack of competence or misdeed) but simultaneously and paradoxically represent themselves as belonging to the profession they are vilifying.

Fragile self-esteem, a need for constant attention and admiration, fishing for compliments (often with great charm), an expectation of superior entitlement, expecting others to defer to them, and a lack of sensitivity especially when others do not react in the expected manner, are also hallmarks of the disorder. Greed, expecting to receive before and above the needs of others, overworking those around them,...abusing special privileges and squandering extra resources also feature.

http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/npd.htm

[Rage for Order]

37. There's a lot in your post about protecting teachers and unions

But not a single word about what's best for students. I wonder why that is?

[liskddksil]

43. What teachers want is almost always beneficial for students

Teachers and their unions fight for smaller classes, which while it helps their profession because it creates more teaching jobs in each school, is extremely beneficial for students. (Bill Gates and the other ed deformers have no problems with bigger class-sizes and less teachers). The protections afforded by the earning of tenure enable teachers to advocate for their student's needs without the fear of political retribution by administrators.

[madfloridian]

44. I hate posts that imply I don't care about students. The new normal?

This new disrespect for teachers and anyone who is/was one is really quite stunning.

As I said recently, I don't know if Obama intended to create such a hostile atmosphere for teachers....or if he just doesn't care enough to try and stop it.

I very much resent your post.

[Rage for Order]

46. I don't think you don't care about students at all

But the vast majority of your posts concerning education reform focus on how certain actions will affect teachers' unions rather than how it benefits students. Teachers' unions look out for students the way police officers' unions look out for the general public.

[madfloridian]

47. Then you did not read the "vast majority" of my posts.

I got your meaning, and I am saying good bye....there is too much at stake for to waste my time on someone thinks I taught so many years and don't care about kids.

Bye.

[Jakes Progress]

38. I guess she merits a Presidential medal.

She is out there paving the way for arne's educations plan - I mean bill bennet's educations plan - I mean ronald ..... oh hell they are the same thing.

[xxqqqzme]

39. Who is funding her 'non-profit'?

I am getting fed up w/ these self-enrichment non-profits.

I am on the BoD of a struggling non-profit. For 32 years we have provided after school programs, in 3 cites, for low to low middle income families. And when I say struggling, I really mean STRUGGLING. We don't have any billionaire brothers, or other robber baron heirs funding us. These asshats are giving non-profits a bad name.

[NICO9000]

40. She is an awful, awful woman

[stevietheman]

45. Rhee has this thing in her head that there are a lot of bad teachers.

It's _not_ a lot. Of course, every profession has its few bad apples, and teaching isn't immune, but from my experience, most teachers do their jobs well.

The idea of firing teachers with seniority is so disgusting on many levels that I don't know where to begin.

Ageist, check.
Anti-experience, check.
Ruining people's lives and livelihoods, check.

Why won't Rhee fight the cuts in total? Because she really doesn't care for students or teachers. She's a patsy for the right wing, which is interested in simply destroying public education. And the tool she employs is pitting one group against another, right-wing-style.

I believe that Rhee is a far bigger scourge in this country than even Glenn Beck. Beck is in the process of flaming out. Rhee needs to be the real big target of anyone who truly cares about students and teachers both.