Former D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee on Monday launched a national educational reform group that, she said, will be her full-time job to lead, tamping down speculation that she is considering a position as Florida’s schools commissioner or another city- or state-based role.
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With a Monday appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and a column in Newsweek, Rhee announced the creation of Students First, a 501(c)4 group that will donate to reform-minded politicians regardless of party and “advocate for what’s in the best interest of kids,” she said.
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“As CEO of Students First, I’ll be working to influence policy at the state level, the municipal level,” Rhee said. “This is not about one person going into one city or one state – it’s about fundamentally changing the dynamics of our schools.”
Rhee said Students First “will lay out a legislative agenda with the kinds of laws that states and local jurisdictions should adopt so that real reform can take place” but largely stay out of federal education policy, including the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is expected to be a priority in 2011 for the U.S. Department of Education and the House and Senate education committees. “I don’t see a lot of our time and money going into the reauthorization of ESEA – that’s not where our focus will be,” she said.
In the next year, the group is aiming to attract 1 million members and to raise $1 billion. Rhee said fundraising will come from a mix of membership dues, small donations of $100 or $200, and grants from foundations and corporations.
Oh, yeah I'm sure lots of money will come from small donations of $100 or $200 from Americans committed to education reform.
And Cathie Black has a Ph.D in education.
Let's be honest, this is a lobbying group put together by the billionaire boys club and they wanted Rhee as the national face of it because they knew they could get appearances on Oprah and covers on Newsweek if Rhee was the face of their organization.
Rhee says the education reform environment is very lopsided and this new group will counter the all-powerful teachers unions.
That's a joke.
Three of the richest men in the world are funding education reform efforts and propaganda all across this country - Bill Gates, Eli Broad,, and Michael Bloomberg.
The Walton family - owners of Walmart - are also throwing in hundreds of millions of dollars.
The money that the unions use to fight the billionaire boys club is a drop in the bucket from what Gates, Broad, Bloomberg, Walmart and other Wall Street/corporate funders of education reform spend.
Just look at how much exposure the ed deform docudrama/reality show Waiting for Superman got through the efforts of Bill Gates and others in the ed deform world.
Can you imagine the Real Reformers getting that kind of exposure?
Uh, uh - not unless they changed to a corporate-friendly message, of course.
So for Rhee to play like she's the underdog in the ed deform fight is just jive.
But the media - the corporate ones, at any rate - will be happy to sell that message.
As Newsweek and Oprah already have.
More zombie Ayn Rand ideas to kill.
money makes the world go 'round...at least for ed management. teachers on the other hand need to wake up, get organized and pressure mulgrew the bland , to get moving on the 4% raise.make some noise...please! if banking had a record bonus year then nys did too!
ReplyDeleteThe bank and Wall Street bonuses are going to be outrageous this year. The market is up 70% since the '08 nadir. And the same people who claim those bonuses as their due will be saying schools need to cut, teachers need to be fired, teacher salaries need to be changed to performance-based.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile the performance on Wall Street has all been juiced by the free cash Uncle Ben Bernanke has been printing nightly for these banksters.
Or it's been juiced by the insider trading info so many of the hedge fund criminals have had.
Performance-based my ass. More like jury-rigged.