Michelle Rhee, CEO of the lobbying organization StudentsFirst doesn't like school boards. As a matter of fact, she says "school boards are some of the most dysfunctional bodies that exist in this country." So, why has she poured money into a board race in Los Angeles?
From LA Times:
A group led by former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee donated $250,000 Wednesday to contests for seats on the Los Angeles Board of Education, adding further political fuel to a battle over the direction of reform efforts in the nation's second-largest school system.
In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Rhee made it known she thinks school districts should be under mayoral control. However, since she can't make that happen, Rhee's doing the next best thing: paying to play.
From the interview:
CR: Do school boards need more power?
MR: Well, I would say no to that question because school boards in my opinion, I think that school boards in this country have been very susceptible to the political process, so often times, and they certainly haven't moved us forward...
CR: So what would you do to change that?
MR: Well, I'm a big believer in mayoral control of schools, I operated under that model [...]
Later in the interview, Rhee brings up unions holding on to power and talks about how she first met her husband, Kevin Johnson, former NBA star and now Mayor of Sacramento. Johnson was speaking at a conference where he was relating his story of running up against union muscle when he tried to open his first charter school. Rhee comments on Johnson's battle: "Well, uh, the teacher's union spent $750,000 to try and keep him from opening that charter school."
The unions use their money for their interests and so does Rhee. She just spent a quarter million dollars in Los Angeles to influence the race according to her agenda. Rhee is as self-serving as the unions and neither should be in the business of directing the education of our children.
Read more on Michelle Rhee at Potter Williams Report
Print
Comments
Share
