Local supporters of D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee have grown more organized in recent weeks, as her attempts at reform have come under sharper attack from union officials and members of the city council.
“I’ve never gotten more e-mails from people all over the city asking what they can do to help,” said Anne Martin, executive director of D.C. School Reform Now, an advocacy group in favor of systemwide changes such as entrusting principals with more power to hire and fire.
The group’s online petition has collected 700 signatures in little more than a week. More than 200 of those came Friday and Saturday, following Rhee’s nine-hour D.C. Council hearing about the recent firing of nearly 400 teachers and school employees.
“It’s a little overwhelming,” Martin said, amid planning for a Wednesday pro-reform event at downtown’s E Street Cinema. “A couple of months ago, no one was reaching out to us.”
Martin and her team are hoping to stage events countering the Washington Teachers’ Union’s more organized and immediate displays of indignation, including an Oct. 8 protest of the firings that gathered more than 1,000 supporters, and angry testimony to the council that lasted until 4 a.m. Oct. 17.
On Oct. 19, Tijwanna Phillips, a Ward 8 advisory neighborhood commissioner whose daughter attends McKinley Tech, wrote a letter to the council saying she was “enraged” by “people missing the point” at the well-publicized events.
Instead of defending fired teachers, Phillips defended some of the firings, including a counselor who she said did little to support her son as he applied for college last year, and a teacher with “a reputation for being nasty to students and parents.”
“The voice of McKinley Tech parents is being misrepresented by a few who are friends with those who were [fired],” Phillips wrote.
Future DCPS parent Angela Lauria moved to Virginia when she became pregnant four years ago, in part because she worried about D.C. schools. But when Rhee took charge, Lauria moved back and in recent weeks has sought out groups in favor of the chancellor’s efforts.
“She spoke my language,” Lauria said. Moving back “was a serious decision, and Michelle Rhee was a part of that decision.”
Lauria echoed Phillips and Martin in expressing dissatisfaction with some of Rhee’s methods, including what many saw as a callous attitude toward fired teachers. But she joined them in supporting the end goal.
“I believe in dignity in the workplace,” Lauria said. “But can we put our kids first? Please?”
Differing ideas about how to accomplish that, and a mayoral election year with Rhee’s job in play, ensure the debate will continue.
