Michelle Rhee said she will roll out a legislative agenda for education reform nationwide in the next few weeks through a nonprofit advocacy organization that she started Monday. At the helm of Students First, the former D.C. schools chancellor said she will provide funds and support to communities committed to implementing the very reforms that polarized the District.
The first step will be an educational platform outlining “the gold standard of what the environment should look like and the laws that should be in existence,” which Rhee plans to publish this month. “Some governors want to mention it in their state-of-state addresses or introduce it in their first legislative session,” she told The Washington Examiner.
Rhee said grants from foundations — including several that sponsored the teacher merit pay plan Rhee introduced in the District — will fund Students First, alongside membership dues and individual donations. Her goal is 1 million members and $1 billion.
| Chain reaction |
| Michelle Rhee was appointed D.C. schools chancellor in 2007, but she really fired up D.C. over the past six months: |
| » June 2: The Washington Teachers’ Union and Rhee reach agreement on a contract that effectively eliminates tenure and creates six-figure salaries for the highest-performing teachers. |
| » July 23: Rhee announces that she has fired 241 teachers, including 165 rated ineffective on classroom evaluations; the union says it will contest the firings. |
| » Sept. 15: Mayor Adrian Fenty concedes his loss in the Democratic mayoral primary to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, a critic of Rhee endorsed by the union. |
| » Oct. 1: Documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ” hits D.C. theaters, painting Rhee as a heroine of school reform. |
| » Oct. 13: Rhee resigns. |
| » Oct. 20: A New Jersey newspaper reports that Rhee is “seriously considering” an offer from Republican Gov. Chris Christie to be the state’s education commissioner. |
| » Oct. 31: Rhee’s official last day in office — although she would preside over a ceremony for top-performing teachers days later. |
| » Dec. 2: Republican Florida Gov.-elect Rick Scott names Rhee to his Education Transition Team as an unpaid adviser. |
| » Dec. 6: Rhee announces she will head advocacy group Students First. |
After stepping down as chancellor, Rhee met with many districts and states about potential jobs, she said, but “realized we need to change the political landscape nationwide in order for people at the local level to be successful.”
She said she hopes to counter “vested interest groups” — specifically, teachers’ unions, which Rhee says protect teachers at the expense of student learning.
Nathan Saunders, who defeated incumbent George Parker to become president of the Washington Teachers’ Union by campaigning on the accusation that Parker gave up too much at the bargaining table with Rhee and her deputy, Kaya Henderson, said he “did not feel threatened” by Rhee’s characterization of unions.
“If we were doing a better job … we would be able to beat back more quickly education profiteers and individuals who see cash in the education business as opposed to a commitment to children under the auspices they’re committed to children,” Saunders said.
Rhee’s two daughters will finish the school year in the District. Then, the woman who negotiated a groundbreaking union contract, fired 165 teachers, carried a broom on the cover of Time Magazine and oversaw improving test scores and a historic enrollment increase, will pick up and leave.
Rhee declined to peg a destination but admitted that Sacramento, the home of her fiance, “obviously has a big pull.”
Henderson, who was named interim chancellor, called Students First “a natural extension of the groundbreaking work she did here.”
“We commend and support her in continuing the urgent work of nationwide education reform.”
